*BSD News Article 66182


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!hobyah.cc.uq.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!miso.cs.uq.edu.au!warwick
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: 16 Apr 1996 00:59:08 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, University of Queensland
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <4kurcs$oq4@miso.cs.uq.edu.au>
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> <yfglok14n5r.fsf@time.cdrom.com> <31702487.420C2193@lambert.org> <4kshlj$gku@picasso.op.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: isa.cs.uq.edu.au
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #7 (NOV)
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21604 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:645 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3268 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3094 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17535 comp.os.linux.advocacy:45987

root@candle.pha.pa.us (Bruce Momjian) writes:

>How many operating systems have tens or hundreds of thousands of
>commercial software packages available?  The PC running Microsoft. 

In searching for optimal solutions, it is often a good approach to try
a large number of random guesses.  However, if some fundamental assumption
in your method of generating random guesses is incorrect, someone without
those assumptions can eventually find a superior solution.

That is straight problem solving.

Applying it to Windows & Unix, it means that Unix-based applications can
eventually supercede Windows-based applications, simply because many things
are not possible under Windows.  The continuing rise of Free Unix is the
spark that will accelerate this situation.

--
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