Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntprelay.mathworks.com!news.mathworks.com!enews.sgi.com!fido.asd.sgi.com!neteng!lm From: lm@neteng.engr.sgi.com (Larry McVoy) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.sys.sgi.misc Subject: Re: no such thing as a "general user community" Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.sys.sgi.misc Date: 1 Apr 1997 05:45:20 GMT Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 41 Message-ID: <5hq7dg$3a6@fido.asd.sgi.com> References: <331BB7DD.28EC@net5.net> <5hn00k$dio@fido.asd.sgi.com> <333F45A6.41C67EA6@FreeBSD.org> <5hpolu$9t2@fido.asd.sgi.com> <5hq3qi$2nr$1@nef.ens.fr> Reply-To: lm@slovax.engr.sgi.com NNTP-Posting-Host: neteng.engr.sgi.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:38465 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:6584 comp.sys.sgi.misc:29686 Roger Espel Llima (espel@drakkar.ens.fr) wrote: : >We do share the same goals. But you refuse to put the cause, that of : >having a good Unix with us in 20 years, ahead of your own personal : >agenda. That's sad. Once upon a time, BSD had a chance. By having : >multiple warring factions, you've destroyed that chance. Sad but true. : This is just plain stupid. It's well-known that the number of users of : each of the 3 free BSD alternatives is growing fast. Are you one of : those who thing the computing world is going to be taken over by : Micro$oft's pseudo-OS's and that they'll magically force them on each of : us even there are alternatives which we prefer, unless we all hail Linux : which is the only thing that might save us? Yup, that is exactly what I think. And if you don't, you are sadly out of touch with reality. Microsoft is the company that thumbed its nose at the US government and walked away unscathed. Go talk to the sales forces at Sun/IBM/SGI and ask how much of an impact NT is having. It's got people very scared. Myself included. In my opinion, IRIX/Solaris/AIX/HPUX, etc, have no future. The choices are either (a) a unified Unix, i.e., one source base on all platforms, or (b) NT. The MIS directors are voting heavily for NT. Why? Because the vendors behave very much like the *BSD crowd - each one talking about how their value is better or that multiple versions encourage competition, or some other bullshit. That noise cuts no mustard with the folks who spend money on computers. All those folks care about is applications. Each new faction just subdivides the Unix application space to the point of being absolutely unattractive to any developer. You guys need a heavy dose of reality. You should go sit in a room with some ISVs and listen to their problems. The ISVs think we are children and they really want to work with adults. Lemme tell ya, there are no adults in the Unix community. Not by comparison to Microsoft. We look like a bunch of pot smoking hippies left over from the days when computers were for nerds. Contrast that with well groomed, well behaved, professional people with real answers to real problems. Which crowd would you bet you business on? So keep on arguing, guys. It's exactly what Microsoft wants you to do. You're doing great. Keep shooting that foot and don't listen to me when I tell you its your own. -- --- Larry McVoy lm@sgi.com http://reality.sgi.com/lm (415) 933-1804