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Date:      Wed, 23 Dec 1998 00:32:19 -0500
From:      Drew Baxter <netmonger@genesis.ispace.com>
To:        David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: This just in: Microsoft/Sears Merger 
Message-ID:  <4.1.19981223001616.009eb140@genesis.ispace.com>
In-Reply-To: <199812230107.TAA09822@n4hhe.ampr.org>
References:  <Message from Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl> <XFMail.981222204458.asmodai@wxs.nl>

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At 07:07 PM 12/22/98 -0600, David Kelly wrote:
>> If you can get 85+% of the software on the market to work on FreeBSD, and
>> support my Voodoo2 card, I'll switch..
>
>Excuses, excuses, excuses. 85% percent of software doesn't support your
>Voodoo2 card, so the requirement that 85% of software support FreeBSD
>and the Voodoo2 card is extremely unlikely. If it were to come to pass, 
>Jordan Hubbard would have done what Bill Gates couldn't do.

Did I say it does?  I said if I could GET 85% of the software on the market
AND my voodoo2 card.. They are separate entities in my sentence..  I'm also
referring to the regular PC market..  I don't see me (nor many people in my
economic class) to be able to have an SGI or an UltraSparc or anything like
that for a home machine.  

This is a software creation place, but this is also a place of
demonstration..  If anything I'm trying to sell myself in demonstration.
It's increasingly difficult to try to sell on a platform that the 'average
consumer' (keep in mind this is referencing the average consumer in Maine,
USA), actually cares about.  Windows, people here can understand.  FreeBSD,
UNIX, Linux (although media lately on that word could spark something),
AIX, SGI, SPARC, SUN, all those words, are not really known or have little
relevance on the 'average consumer' in Maine.  As a network developer in an
Educational Institution (Public, at that), I get the wonderous joy of being
a consultant too.  "FreeBSD", will not sell as a buzz word to these people,
but "Windows" will.  People that refuse to touch computers in that town
know what Windows is..

If you're looking for me to say that I'd wipe all 17.7 gig of storage I
have on this machine and install FreeBSD, you won't see that.  Yes, I have
a FreeBSD machine running X here, as well as my larger machine at work.
Yes, I like using both of them.  Yes, I am in a Microsoft world due to
work.  But there are several thousand other people that go to work each
morning to a Windows-based PC, so if anything, I'm a sell-out or a
follower.. But that's the difference, if I was a leader, I'd have a choice.

>Not to mention less than 85% of all software runs on Microsoft hosts.
>Apple, Unix, and mainframes have at least 20% of the software market.

Again, PC market.  K-8 school in Eastern/Central Maine USA in a town with
1800 people doesn't care about Mainframe or Unix, in many cases not even
Apple..

If someone ever manages to get WINE to be neck and neck with whatever
Windows version comes out (as far as application compatiblity only), then
I'll switch. In the meantime, the words are "Office", "Foolproof", and
"Encarta"...  2 of the 3 ARE Microsoft products, the 3rd only runs on
Windows or Macintosh..

---
Drew "Droobie" Baxter
OneNetwork Exchange
Network Development, Orland Consolidated School
http://www.droo.orland.me.us
207-942-0275 / 207-471-2719


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