Date: Tue, 09 Jan 1996 21:22:22 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Robert Nordier <rnordier@iafrica.com> Cc: terry@lambert.org (Terry Lambert), root@synthcom.com, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: DOS File system fixes Message-ID: <3159.821251342@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 09 Jan 1996 22:20:55 %2B0200." <199601092020.WAA00192@eac.iafrica.com>
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> Though, personally, I've never been attracted to the idea of FreeBSD
> running DOS or Windows apps: I don't know how others feel about this.
I think that the answer to that question goes rather far beyond
whether or not the likes of you and I are attracted to the idea.
The sheer number of applications in question, and the weight of
testimony from the many who have gone frequently (and loudly) on
record as saying that they ARE interested in the idea, thank you very
much, is more than enough compelling evidence, I think.
In particular, I call your attention to the following article which
I fwd'd recently to Amancio's multimedia list:
NOORDA's WILLOWS TO PUT ITS
WINDOWS-ON-UNIX SOURCE ON TO NET
Fresh from its victory over Microsoft Corp last month at
ECMA, the European Computer Manufacturers Association (UX No
569), the tiny Ray Noorda-financed start-up Willows Software
has changed gears, plowing ahead with a move that is bound
to irk the mighty Redmond empire. This week it'll detail a
plan to distribute the source code to its ersatz Win32s
operating environment, described as a subset of Windows 95,
free on the Internet. It will also make its anticipated
software development kit, the Twin Cross Platform Developers
Kit (XPDK), similarly available for personal use. Noorda
himself will brief the press. The source code will allow
users of any flavour of Unix - followed in turn by Apple
Macintosh, Novell NetWare and ultimately IBM OS/2 users - to
run Windows binaries, particularly Microsoft's own highly
popular Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs, on their
systems. They will not have to pay any operating systems
"taxes" to Microsoft.
Saratoga, California-based Willows claims the move will
create something of a paradigm shift - at least within the
narrow confines of Unix - and spell the end of Sun
Microsystems Inc's like-minded but limited product, Wabi, as
well as Motif. Officially, Wabi only runs two dozen of the
thousands of Windows programs available and to run some of
them, like PowerPoint, requires the real Windows underneath,
defeating one of Sun's purposes - to wit, depriving
Microsoft of its revenue stream. Willows chief Rob Farnum
says he will spend the next few weeks lobbying Wabi's
greatest adherents, Sun and IBM, to abandon Wabi and license
the Willows solution on favourable terms. He has utter
confidence such an appeal will succeed and make Willows
money. (Sun and IBM Corp did after all sit on the ECMA
technical committee TC37 with Willows pushing the technology
as a standard.) Farnum never wanted to distribute the source
code, he says, because Willows doesn't have the financial
wherewithal to support it. The decision to do it anyway was
made over the holidays by Microsoft's old nemesis Ray Noorda
and his henchmen. Farnum now believes that despite the fact
the source code won't be supported it will attract tens of
thousands of users.
Outside interest in Willows technology, he said, has always
focused almost exclusively on its ability to run binaries.
It is unclear whether Noorda will also try to tie it in
somehow with the Linux freeware-based Corsair Internet
desktop his Caldera operation is pushing. Willows is also
now willing to forego carving out what it estimates would be
a modest little $10m business selling its XPDK toolkit to a
couple of thousand Unix developers a year. Any real money to
be made, it figures, lies in what it calls "professional
services," porting applications for people with its
technology or helping them port them. It intends to announce
such a program this week. It also intends to announce
licensing schemes whereby pieces of its technology can be
bundled with third-party programs.
Willows will support its technology when applied to
commercial purposes and apparently charge modest licensing
fees of $250 a platform despite the number of developers
using it or run-times created. Farnum claims that when
Willows this week announces the imminent arrival of its XPDK
for the Mac - which like its NetWare kit is at the alpha
stage - it will bring pressure to bear on Microsoft's new
$1,600 Visual C++ tool for the platform. Still he remains
diffident, or perhaps cautious, about Willows impact on
Microsoft - at one point calling it "mouse nuts" - and
Microsoft's reaction to Willows' moves. He apparently
expects Microsoft to denigrate Willows technology out of a
perceived loss of control, loss of revenue and threat to
Win95. At the same time, he admits it would take Willows 50
man-years just to catch up with Microsoft's OLE work which
he knows he must emulate. Farnum leaves unarticulated or
unadmitted - despite direct questions - Willows long-term
purposes respecting Microsoft though perhaps he and Noorda
now feel they will make more daunting foes by using the
Internet to evolve their schemes.
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