Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 16:55:46 -0500
From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>
To: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Lets not bash Windows or M$ at every opportunity {was: FreeBSD and Microsoft}
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20010630160929.00a76388@127.0.0.1>
In-Reply-To: <20010629230803.A18249@hades.hell.gr>
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At 11:08 PM 6/29/2001 +0300, Giorgos Keramidas wrote: >On Wed, Jun 27, 2001 at 03:48:54PM -0500, Frank Pawlak wrote: > > > Unfortunately, this comes at a very bad time because now there is a > > bit more than a glimmer of hope that open source can begin to > > effectively compete with them, and erode their market share. > > > It is really a sad state that better products like BSD and Linux > > have to fight with their hands tied behind their backs. > >What fight? Who ties their hands? Better products than ...? >Please do not start making generalizations like those above. They are not generalizations at all. Perhaps I am wrong, but there appears to be some confusions in your reading what I have written, mainly my use of metaphor. I am not referring to any physical fight or and condition of physical bondage. That said, what I am referring to is mind share and market share, which are two sides of the some coin. When a company has the power in the market place to dominate these through use of scare tactics, FUD, half-truths, out-right-lies and other nefarious means, they in effect eliminate the opportunity for any competitor to gain a foot hold in the market. Right now Linux, and open source software in general, is gaining some mind share and market share in commercial organizations. In other words users have a choice. Today M$ is hard at work to circumvent this. Again, in my opinion. >If by 'better products' you mean Windows, then I'd have to be the >devil's advocate and suggest that Windows does have some good things >that Linux and/or FreeBSD don't have. For instance, they do have >support for more multimedia file formats. I know that we are talking >about closed, proprietary formats now, but the support is there in >Windows, and it's not in Linux or FreeBSD. In this simple and small >part of the system (multimedia support) Windows seems to be `better' >than Linux or FreeBSD. Therefore, I'm still at a loss at how you >defined 'better'. Better is just what it means. What you say about Windows is true as far as it goes. If it is multi-media that you wish, I am told that BeOS is the platform of choice, though I am guarded in making this statement as I have not personally used it. Presently, the lack of desktop, easy to use apps, is an encumbrance to Linux becoming a viable competitor on the desktop. But, the desktop is only part of the picture. Servers are a whole different ball game. And it is in servers where Windows does a pratfall. In my opinion that is also true on the desktop, but -well. Now to the specifics as to whether or not Windows is a good operating system, my original opinion still stands. The general answer is no. Yes it does support a lot of stuff, but at what price? It remains an OS where the apps are integrated into it, it is resource hungry, performance and reliability are mediocre, and that is bad in general and specifically. Can that be argued with? Sure. Is Win 2K better than NT? You bet. Is WIndows 9.x an operating system -- well humh. Do I use any of these Windows products -- yes. Strictly because it is the only game in town. Will Windows in any incarnation displace big iron and high end UNIX boxes? Not in the foreseeable future. The reason is that it remains a single user OS regardless of how much stuff M$ hangs on it to make it appear ready for the big leagues. Where M$ is competing unfairly as outlined above is in the mid and lower tiers of commercial enterprise, precisely where Linux and open source is now gaining mind share. And therein lies the problem. In summary, can I be convinced that Windows is a good OS? Not in this life-time. ;-) Frank >Oh, and then, there's that `fight thing' and the tied hands. >Am not sure I got any point out of this, sorry... > > > It is my hope that Justice will win out and slap their ass and free > > the market for us. > >You had me agree there, up until 'Justice will win out'. >Yes, my hope is that Justice will win out too. > >I am also afraid of seeing something bad happen, such as the Justice >Department winning Microsoft in this case, and making a habit of >stopping companies that grow `large' in their opinion. Then as time >passes, this `large' might begin to shrink in size, and that would be >most improper. > >Some things are a bit tricky :/ > >-giorgos To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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