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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!comp.vuw.ac.nz!waikato!newsource.ihug.co.nz!usenet From: cdhudson@ihug.co.nz (clive Hudson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Netbsd and that other operating system Date: 6 May 1996 02:01:17 GMT Organization: Your Organization Lines: 30 Message-ID: <4mjmhd$lq3@newsource.ihug.co.nz> NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp-287.ihug.co.nz Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.4 As a person that has used bothe Lunix and Netbsd and that other operating system win95 I would like to make a plead to the developers of both Netbsd and Lunix. Could someone go to the effort ( If I had the skills believe me I would) to build a operating system that can really challenge win95. As a operating system I dont rate win95 highly at all. But it does one thing very well , its easy to use. Its also compatible with old win 3.1 apps and theres a large marketing force behind it. However there is one problem with win95 which is that you have to pay for it if you want to be a legal user. On the other hand we have Lunix and Netbsd plus Freebsd etc. These operating systems are free but hard to use. They may be powerful and have features that win95 may not have , but to the average user they mean nothing. Most people dont understand the difference between a 16 bit or 32 bit operating system. Many users dont even know the difference between a bit or byte. However the tools are available to make the free unix's such as Netbsd user friendly. It couldn't be too hard to build a package that included basic unix binaries and x windows with a window manager such as firststep, with a couple of user packages such as word processor, spreadsheet and Internet applications. You might argue that red hat lunix provides this , but I disagree, many common user functions are not easy to use and a novice computer user is more of a danger to himself than anything else. Surely its not to hard to build a idiot proof x windows shell that allows basic user functions to be easily done, which also protect the user from her/himself. I certainly would like to hear from other users on this point. (Please no flaming). Its seems like all the tools are there to create a great user friendly operating system which is powerful and FREE.