Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 01:16:15 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Bill Gates: "FreeBSD is our competitor" Message-ID: <4.1.19990223011331.0097bb80@mail.lariat.org> In-Reply-To: <19990223183910.P93492@lemis.com>
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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. --Brett 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. > >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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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