*BSD News Article 65656


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From: "Mr. Wizard" <madscientist@dark.mountain.stronghold>
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: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 16:43:48 -0500
Organization: alt.destroy.the.earth
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Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> 
> The result is an interface that only a programmer could love, and so
> it's hardly then a surprise that only the programmers generally do.  X
> started out as a wonderful experiment in interoperability and has now
> turned into a 10 ton millstone around UNIX's neck.  Sorry, I know it's
> painful, but that's the truth.  Unfortunately, it's also all we've
> got.
> 

I disagree. The only thing X needs is free support for all major brands
of video cards. (It has been done by AcceleratedX, but unfortunately it costs
$100) (Maybe also free Motif so disk space isn't wasted.)

Otherwise, X is perfect. I don't want a GUI that assumes that all users are
the same and all they need is a fancy way to push the same button in all
their apps. When I want a GUI I want:

1) A fast way to use graphics - so games like Descent and Doom can be
run at SVGA resolution.

2) A GUI that is not built in, so memory is not wasted when a GUI is not
used by an app. (Shared libs is a much more elegant way of coding a UI-
when the buttons and dialog boxes are hard-coded into the OS/OE the result
is Windows/Mac.)

3) Network support, especially Internet. 

X fits all these criteria beutifully. 

You assume again that every-one wants the same thing, and that is definatly
the wrong approach. 


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