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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!news.nstn.ca!newsflash.concordia.ca!torn!news.bc.net!felix.junction.net!not-for-mail From: michael@memra.com (Michael Dillon) 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 00:08:53 -0700 Organization: Memra Software Inc. - Internet consulting - http://www.memra.com Lines: 26 Message-ID: <4l4pq5$h3s@sidhe.memra.com> References: <tporczykDpqKHL.7vG@netcom.com> <DpsKyx.1Jo@catzen.gun.de> <tporczykDptpAL.8uG@netcom.com> <4ksupc$a1j@cnn.nas.nasa.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: sidhe.memra.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21814 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:706 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3343 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3185 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17716 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46349 In article <4ksupc$a1j@cnn.nas.nasa.gov>, Paul M. Newhouse <newhouse@win126.nas.nasa.gov> wrote: >>As I said originally, the only thing that can sell UNIX to desktops >>(besides specialized uses) is applications - common productivity >>applications, priced *reasonably*. > >I agree. We need to see a good spreedsheet and a good WYSIWIG document >processor at resonable prices in order to really expand the Free/Net BSD, >Linux demand in the desktop arena. Personally, I think we've got to have a good spreadsheet and word processor PORTABLE FILE FORMAT that several people can write spreadsheet and WP programs for. In the beginning there was UNIX and plain ASCII stream files. This was good. Then there was nroff/troff and it was still pretty good. But then all hell broke loose and every app comes with mutually incomprehensible file formats that are all so utterly mediocre that they change from one release to the next. We need a little bit of up-front design to come up with something that will work for a long time but is more rigorously designed than HTML and is not so close to the metal as Postscript. -- Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-546-3049 http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com