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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.cis.okstate.edu!newsfeed.ksu.ksu.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.missouri.edu!vortex.cc.missouri.edu!rhys From: rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu (Justin "Rhys Thuryn" McNutt) 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) Followup-To: 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 Date: 26 Apr 1996 15:25:53 GMT Organization: University of Missouri - Columbia Lines: 40 Message-ID: <4lqpu1$j7q@news.missouri.edu> References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <4lfm6m$d2c@rigel.tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de> <4lftn3$olb@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> <317C8F0F.307E@curtin.edu.au> <4lgo4c$6fa@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> <317E07F1.441D@curtin.edu.au> <317DAA16.42C86E59@lambert.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: vortex.cc.missouri.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22439 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:860 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3542 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3400 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:18229 comp.os.linux.advocacy:47250 Distribution: Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote: : ] Great warrior doesn't fight: he sits on his dorstep waiting : ] for the body of his enemy to be carried down the street. : ] Tao Te Ching : ] (not an exact citation: I read it long ago and in : ] different language :-) : An inappropriate quote... it refers to the wisdom of defeating : your enemies by outliving them, instead of placing yourself : at risk. If your enemies fight and you do not, you are all : the more likely to outlive them. : What is your estimate of the life expenctancy of Microsoft? Perhaps not entirely. Unix has been around longer than Microsoft, and really, with the way Microsoft is going, I think Unix will easily outlast it. In my opinion, Microsoft is going to get too big for its breeches in an awful hurry, and then implode when product quality goes to hell (more than usual), tech. support costs run them into the floor, and they spiral downward into zero. That doesn't mean that Unix (commercial or free) will be the default winner, but it does mean that I think that Unix can outlast Microsoft in a race against time, simply because Unix is a set of ideas and standards that are not really owned by anyone. DOS/Windows are owned by a corporate entity that must remain solvent. If Microsoft goes to hell, DOS and Windows will (slowly) fade away, or be picked up by another company who will hopefully turn them into real OSs. The unices have the advantage of *not* being a company that depends on doing business. -------- If you can lead it to water and force it to drink, it isn't a horse. Got a Linux problem? Or can you help others solve them? Visit the Linux Common Problems page at http://vortex.cc.missouri.edu/~rhys/linux.html rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu