Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 19:54:51 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Jay Nelson <noslenj@swbell.net> Cc: greyheart@fnmail.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Bull (Was: Re: Open Source isolated...) Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.19991121194758.04722b20@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9911211937470.2199-100000@acp.swbell.net> References: <4.2.0.58.19991121181653.04721360@localhost>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 08:15 PM 11/21/1999 -0600, Jay Nelson wrote:
>>As for the desktop: BSD can and should offer solutions for it, as
> >any OS should. Remember: people want to use the same OS on the
> >client and on the server. If you do only one, you won't present
> >good value to the user.
>
>I disagree. If that were so, Solaris, AIX and HPUX would have failed.
>Instead, they dominate the commercial server world. Most professonals
>I've run into make a strong distinction between the "workstaton" and
>the server. On the workstation, they are stuck with Groupwise or
>Outlook -- they don't expect much. They get paged in the middle of the
>night, though, if the server goes down.
All of those platforms also offer a desktop. It may not be used by
EVERYONE, but this is a matter more of price, marketing, and (especially)
the suite of available applications. UNIX platforms make fine desktop
OSes.
>The problem is making all these people realize that they can have on
>their desktop what they have in the server room. M$ is trying to
>convince them that they can have in the server room what they have on
>the desktop -- and most aren't buying it.
They're being led by the nose into it; that's what Windows 2000 is
all about.
But Windows 2000 has some nasties that they'll balk at. For instance,
you can't run your DOS apps anymore. BSD actually has an edge here;
you can still run them under BSDI's DOS emulator (which has been
donated by the company for general use -- hurrah!).
>My humble opinion (and send the holy flames to hell;) is that, if you
>want a desktop, focus on OpenLook -- since it is the _most_ familiar
>in the Unix world behind CDE. CDE is licensed, so not an option --
I have no problem with a commercial, licensed desktop so long as it is
not overly expensive and is well maintained.
>OpenLook is the window manager we can use that is most familiar to
>professionals. Most experienced Solaris admins that I've run into seem
>to gravitate to OpenLook as opposed to CDE. ('Course -- maybe they're
>ex SunOS folks -- never checked.)
Actually, Gosling's NeWS wasn't bad either. Too bad Sun kept such tight
control of it that it never became popular. Now that McNealy is
preaching "community source," maybe it'll see a resurgence if the
source is opened.
>Needless to say, I think we should be catering to professonals rather
>than the Maudie Fricks of the world. Our strength is in the production
>end -- not the desktop.
Let's move from strength to strength.
--Brett
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.2.0.58.19991121194758.04722b20>