Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 09:10:02 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Zippy <seth@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Netscape browser Message-ID: <4.1.19990319090556.00b604d0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9903191054460.40753-100000@freebie.dp.ny.frb .org> References: <4.1.19990319082724.03f70100@localhost>
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At 10:59 AM 3/19/99 -0500, Zippy wrote: >Doubt this would work. The reason the present system works (Linux >emulation under FreeBSD) is because it's in FreeBSD's interest to support >the linux emulation. The reverse isn't true, unfortunately. Doesn't matter. WE'd do it, just as AT&T created Plan 9 emulation for UNIX. >Telling a >vendor to make a native port to FreeBSD because the FreeBSD folks are >maintaining an emulation package for Linux won't fly. The company would >be putting its trust in the FreeBSD community to maintain that package. >If the maintainers decided to drop the package, the company would lose its >linux market base. Wouldn't happen. It's open source, remember? They have the source; they can maintain the emulation. That's the BEST possible insurance. >Why would they do that when they can port directly to >linux and tap the market directly? Because FreeBSD, by some estimates, has 2/3 the installed base of Linux. If you could increase the potential market for the same SKU by 66%, why not do it? >Unfortunately, hype works in the real world. We need some of it. We need hype, too. But this would be an opportunity to learn from the history of OS/2 and not repeat its (perhaps fatal) mistake. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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