Date: Sun, 20 Apr 1997 09:32:55 -0700 From: mike allison <mallison@konnections.com> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk>, dennis <dennis@etinc.com>, Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>, Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Price of FreeBSD (was On Holy Wars...) Message-ID: <335A4537.7AC6599C@konnections.com> References: <15863.861457855@time.cdrom.com>
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To the question: > So why aren't there a lot of people using something else? :-) :-) Jordan K. Hubbard wrote> > Bottom line? Ease of use. That damn GUI interface and > point-and-click setup tools have lowered the cost of ownership just > enough that the Unwashed Masses(tm) > > Of course, over in the UN*X world, we were right in the middle of > fighting the GUI wars and inventing a window system that only > engineers could love, so we got passed by. ;-) > > Jordan I think too, if we recall, the `Look and Feel' decision which killed quite a few projects. Remember GEM? Anyone seen the Original GEM (Ver 1.0)? I happen to own a copy. Makes the PC look, feel and ACT like, oh I'm sorry, EXCATLY Like, a Mac. GEM had to be totally redesigned to keep its `look and feel' from being Mac-y. I think all these selfish law suits and buyouts and closed systems are what killed the market. The technical exception was Windows which King William opened up and made sure there were planty of SDKs available along with `Runtime packages' to release with your product. As we've all pointed out, pointless times, Bill's marketing was perfect for everyone -- the increase in overhead demanded more better systems which meant more stuff to sell and this in turn led to more s/w development and more overhead.... dah dah dah.... I think the real shame in all of this, as I've ALWAYS said, is that the whole computer thing was and is a big MARKETING SCAM. No one gives a shit about users and installations and some sort of stability within the market and the platforms... they're just all out to make BIG MONEY... And we all get caught up in the NEWER BETTER FASTER games.... I think the Free world is always trying to improve their product but some (Linux world esp) still eagerly await every little release because they think they're getting more More MORE.... So, if I'm a little guy who just wants to market a good product, how do I keep up with all this perceived instability? Wouldn't it be better if fixes and features were worked on, compiled and released annually at the least? And that we begin to focus a bit less on making the systems work perfectly and more towards helping commercial vendors work within the platform? NT is nice.... it has some bullet proof features.... but NOW I can't get at the machine. I can't get a command line interface. At least in X I can pull an Xterm and manipulate the machine. NT/95, like the Mac interface. Don't trust me to have that access. It's similar to automated online card systems at the library. It only works when I can think like the system expects me to think. Sometimes I just want to browse through the cards and do things myself.... It's only a matter of time before Micrsoft figures out a way to break into the FreeUnix world.... wait and see.... the first product will be Front Page...... -Mike
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