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From: vluu@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Viet-Trung Luu)
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
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Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 21:00:35 GMT
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <bnelsonDpqpz3.M1D@netcom.com> <jdd.829341760@cdf.toronto.edu> <3170631a.163112883@nntp.ix.netcom.com>
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In article <3170631a.163112883@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
Martin Brundage <martyb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>I think it's a good idea to try to broaden the user base of Linux, and it seems
>possble (with some effort) to hide the internals and mainenance issues from the
>unsophisticated users. Caldera has taken a first step in this direction, but
>much more needs to be done.
It seems to me that what Caldera has succeeded in doing is in
penetrating the corporate/MIS wall -- suddenly, I'm seeing articles
about Linux (CND though) in InfoWorld, PC Week, etc. They've also
convinced various companies to make their UNIX products available for
Linux.
It's amazing what one name (well-known in the corporate side of
computing) can do... (That one name, if you're wondering, is Ray
Noorda.)
>I don't think you need a new operating system, but rather a free
>industry-standard, OS-independent user interface. A free clone of Openlook or
>CDE may meet this requirement. Obviously this is not something Linux can do
>alone, but already the industry seems to be moving in this direction. (Does
>anyone know of any work being done for Linux on this type of project?)
Well, CDE requires Motif... and Lesstif, a clone of Motif, is being
developed. Other than that, there's always GNUstep/OpenStep ("open"
NeXTstep)... but that might take a lot longer and in any case, NeXTstep
(now OpenStep) is hardly industry-standard.
However, with GNUstep, it'd meet the "free" requirement, and it does
meet the OS-independent UI requirement.
>The other requirement is more difficult: flawless Win-32 support. I know this
>(and the Wine project) is not a popular idea among Linux advocates, but OS/2 and
>MacOS have shown that an alternative API alone will probably never challenge the
>monopoly of M$, and those APIs have much broader user bases, and much more
>commercial support, than Linux.
Sure, it'd be nice to have Win32 support. (I don't know whether it isn't
a popular idea among Linux advocates -- Linux advocates are often
willing to have compatibility with anything.) However, this isn't
something the Microsoft is helping anyone with.
The API itself is big enough and hard enough to emulate. To do so
without MS's help is an order of magnitude harder. (Especially if you
want the "flawless" part.)
(Large projects like these are even harder when you consider that
everyone -- or nearly everyone -- working on Linux is a volunteer and
does so on their spare time... and that the Windoze API is a moving
target.)
- Trung