Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 18:48:41 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Bill Gates: "FreeBSD is our competitor" Message-ID: <19990223184841.Q93492@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <4.1.19990223011331.0097bb80@mail.lariat.org>; from Brett Glass on Tue, Feb 23, 1999 at 01:16:15AM -0700 References: <19990223183910.P93492@lemis.com> <4.1.19990223011331.0097bb80@mail.lariat.org>
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On Tuesday, 23 February 1999 at 1:16:15 -0700, Brett Glass wrote: > At 06:39 PM 2/23/99 +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: > >> In an otherwise forgettable interview with Bill Gates published in >> issue 4/1999 of the German magazine c't, I note the following question >> and answer fragment: >> >> c't: How much competition does Linux really pose to Windows NT? >> More and more large companies are using Linux. Could that >> become dangerous for NT? >> >> Gates: Windows NT has always had some competition. FreeBSD has been >> around for a long time. Apache, free software, has been used >> by large companies for a long time. Maybe you have only >> noticed it now. We have had competition from free software for >> a long time. Our job is to do the things that people expect >> from an operating system [excuse me while a laugh myself silly. >> Ah, that's better] and to bring it to a completely new level. >> That is what we're doing with Windows 2000. That is what we >> will do if future versions. >> >> [More stuff omitted. He did *not* mention Linux in his answer. >> This is pretty typical of the interview, which I found a bit >> disappointing. The interviewers could have really hammered him >> in a couple of places, but if they did, they didn't publish >> it]. >> >> For those of you who read c't, it's in the middle of the right-hand >> column on page 20. > > Microsoft execs have a practice of decreeing that employees must > NOT mention a major competitor's name, especially in the presence > of reporters. They would, for instance, pay a fine if they mentioned > the "N-word" (that is, "Netscape") instead of saying, "that browser > company." > > I suspect that the same sort of edict has been issued with regard > to Linux. Certainly I thought that he used the name FreeBSD to change the subject, but firstly I don't think any such edict would apply to King Bill, and secondly he spoke at length about Netscape, AOL and Sun in the interview (without saying very much). Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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