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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!spool.mu.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!news.ios.com!usenet From: Bryan Seigneur <freds@gramercy.ios.com> 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: Wed, 01 May 1996 23:38:05 -0400 Organization: SONETECH, Inc. Lines: 61 Message-ID: <31882E1D.5E08D743@gramercy.ios.com> 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$6fa@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> <317E07F1.441D@curtin.edu.au> <317DAA16.42C86E59@lambert.org> <4lqpu1$j7q@news.missouri.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp-49.ts-4.dc.idt.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b3 (X11; I; Linux 1.3.20 i486) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22743 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:894 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3601 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3455 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:18506 comp.os.linux.advocacy:47634 Justin Rhys Thuryn McNutt wrote: > 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. Quality, going to hell? Already is. What I hate is that it's often not MS that succeeds by itself. NT can't succeed without horrendous industry support. One of the main arguments for NT is "there are gonna be so many utilities, add-ons, and apps (because NT sux by it- self, just like DOS, and the lesser Windows did) for it from 3rd parties RSN, that NT is a good investment." CHICKEN AND EGG. VISUALIZATION. If everyone thinks NT is the best enterprise OS, well hell, a huge industry will be spawned that makes the stuff which makes NT the enterprise OS. It won't matter that NT wasn't scalable enough, or flexible enough, or functional enough; it won't matter that all the people making the decision to support NT were just WRONG, MISTAKEN, INCORRECT! The add-on industry will die off as MS incorporates the features provided thereby into the OS (or as MS simply buys the industry). What the hell do we all gain? It's maddening! It seems the whole industry exists only to be pawns of MS! > 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. As I said above, mindshare means a lot. > -------- > 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 Bryan Seigneur, member, Team Linux--Psyops Division ;^) See the grin, that means that was a joke, if someone takes it seriously, I have a right to spam them. -- Y W8 4MS? LNX4FREE!