Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!nwnews.wa.com!news1.halcyon.com!chinook.halcyon.com!dorian From: dorian@chinook.halcyon.com (Aaron Mitchell) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc Subject: Re: Netbsd and that other operating system Date: 19 May 1996 01:28:28 GMT Organization: Northwest Nexus, Inc. - Professional Internet Services Lines: 37 Message-ID: <4nltfs$lqr@news1.halcyon.com> References: <4mjmhd$lq3@newsource.ihug.co.nz> <4mssh4$ckr@rtnews.rto.dec.com> <4lYnOmK00iWZI1uVxo@andrew.cmu.edu> <4ne1cs$ogu@newsource.ihug.co.nz> NNTP-Posting-Host: chinook.halcyon.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] : I like you have two machines , one running netbsd/linux and another machine : running windows for word processing and internet. I would find it a lot less : hassle if I could do it all on the one machine. Try dual booting between 95 & your choice of Unix. : There is one important differnce between Netbsd and Win95/NT etc. For : starters Netbsd can run on multiple platforms , which helps create a : consistent standard. But more importantly Netbsd is FREE. For the likes of : you and me win95 costs less than a days wages, but in other places in the : world the cost of win95 is more than a week or months wages. What is a person : to do if they want win95, either they pirate a copy or go without. I doubt that someone who can afford a computer that Windows95 will run on (realistically a 486 with at least 8 megs of ram and a SVGA card) can't afford the $85 95 costs. If you can't afford 95, but do have the computer to run it on, someone must have given you the computer. : Surely I cant be hard to provide the graphical shell and applications for : Netbsd that make it a truely free operating system for the basic computer : users out there. Isn't Xwindows there to provide this purpose? a graphical shell? If not NetBSD, then Linux or FreeBSD. I don't think your arguments hold up very well. I think there is a place for all OSes. Beleive me, their word be no Microsoft Office or Photoshop if there wasn't a commercial environment to pay for the work that was required to create them. If there wasn't a commercial based OS, like Windows95, less computers would be sold, less great hardware and software packages would be developed, and overall the world would be more computer illiterate on a whole. If you take out the profit in computers, it turns into a hobby. It's like saying we should demand that all of the NASA employees volunteer to send people to outer space. Commerce backs the computer industry, and keeps it from stagnating.