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From: warwick@cs.uq.edu.au (Warwick Allison)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
Date: 18 Apr 1996 03:15:36 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, University of Queensland
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <4l4c4o$nuh@miso.cs.uq.edu.au>
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <DpsKyx.1Jo@catzen.gun.de> <tporczykDptpAL.8uG@netcom.com> <4l0fv9$1bfs@news.missouri.edu> <4l2u61$fdg@solaria.cc.gatech.edu>
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History has shown us so far that we developers don't want a simple
interface. Hardly suprising. So we don't write one (same reason we
haven't written a WhatYouSeeIsAllYouGet word/text editor).
Users do, however.
Fortunately, this is where commercial enterprises such as RedHat can
progress the operating system towards users. [BSD'ers skip this paragraph]
The GPL (and the sensibility of these GPL-aware commercial enterprises)
ensures that the full drive of the Free Software developments continues to
push behind that user-oriented presentation.
I don't believe it is an "Opportunity facing Free Unix". I believe that
the opportunities are presented to commercial enterprises (including the
hardware sellers, as someone else mentioned - they'd love to have an OS
they could give away with the hardware).
Developers need just continue to do as we have been doing, not be distracted
into *working* towards some Grand Plan. Of course, there are those among us
who WANT to write WYSIWYG editors just as much as there are those who might
want to produce a new release of ed(1), but that's good - lot's of activity
on many fronts is what makes Free Unix so great.
--
Warwick
--
_-_|\ warwick@cs.uq.edu.au Linux: Say `No' to broken windows.
/ * <- Comp Sci Department, McD: http://student.uq.edu.au/~s002434/mcl.html
\_.-._/ Univ. of Queensland, POV: http://student.uq.edu.au/~s002434/pov.html
v Brisbane, Australia. ME: http://student.uq.edu.au/~s002434