From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Jan 4 12:30:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id MAA22031 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 4 Jan 1998 12:30:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from rah.star-gate.com ([209.133.7.178]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id MAA22012 for ; Sun, 4 Jan 1998 12:30:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from hasty@rah.star-gate.com) Received: from rah.star-gate.com (localhost.star-gate.com [127.0.0.1]) by rah.star-gate.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA13497; Sun, 4 Jan 1998 12:29:40 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from hasty@rah.star-gate.com) Message-Id: <199801042029.MAA13497@rah.star-gate.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0gamma 1/27/96 To: Nate Williams cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Java Apps? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sun, 04 Jan 1998 12:58:48 MST." <199801041958.MAA19427@mt.sri.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 12:29:40 -0800 From: Amancio Hasty Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk Thats interesting however I would imagine that there is at least a small percentage of developers that will be willing to write applications. We can start by defining small target goals for instance in my case I like my Pilot however I hate to run Win95 to just interface to my Pilot. On a slightly bigger scale what we need is an application architect which can create an architecture such that tasks can be broken down to re-usable components similar to Java Beans. Cheers, Amancio > > > I doubt it. But, Java could be the technology that allows applications > > > to actually run under FreeBSD, irregardless of whether or not they were > > > developed there or not. Plus, it allows FreeBSD folks to develop > > > applications for Win32/Solaris/NC's and the like while still leveraging > > > all of the knowledge and familiarity with unix/FreeBSD development. > > > > Curious, why do you think people don't like developing applications > > for FreeBSD? > > There's very little money in it. I've seen too many people attempt to > make commercial products in the 'free' market for too long fall on their > face. The only 'big winners' in the free market have been people who > sell the actual hardware we run on (PC's), and people who sell software > to developers (the only example I can think of are XInside, who sell a > high-performance X server and Motif.) > > Other than that, I don't see much of a market for any kind of > application, since most of the folks who use FreeBSD either already know > what they are using it for, or are developers themselves and have little > use for applications. That's not to say there isn't a *very* small > market, but it's not enough to make anyone rich or famous, or even allow > them to 'get back' the time and effort they would spend to make > something truly significant. It's just easier to give away something > and get more satisfaction from doing that than to try to make a buck. > > So, because there isn't a whole lot of motivation for creating a 'killer > app' just for FreeBSD due to the small market, it doesn't make a lot of > sense to develop a product just for FreeBSD. Now, as I stated before, > you can *use* FreeBSD to develop a 'killer app', but that application > shouldn't be FreeBSD-centric if you want to be successful. > > > Nate > and anything you give away is going to take alot less time to develop