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Date:      Tue, 4 Dec 2001 19:58:44 +0100
From:      "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com>
To:        "Jeremiah Gowdy" <jeremiah@sherline.com>, "Brian Raynes" <brian_raynes@dnr.state.ak.us>
Cc:        <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Prevalence of FreeBSD and UNIX among servers
Message-ID:  <010301c17cf5$b2a3de40$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
References:  <00ef01c17cda$6b419760$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <3C0D0426.BEC515D7@dnr.state.ak.us> <007801c17ce9$78df5150$03e2cbd8@server>

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Jeremiah writes:

> I hate to throw a pitch for the other team, but
> I evaluate all of my software equally no matter
> who produces it.  Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft
> Visual Studio/Visual C++ 6.0 are more than good
> enough.  They are excellent products.  [...]

Agreed, but I think that something that needs to be kept in mind here is that the desktop is not a viable battleground for UNIX vs.
Windows; Windows has already won, and in fact it won long ago.  The battleground is in the domain of servers.  Instead of worrying
about seeing more UNIX on the desktop, it would be more productive to worry about maintaining and expanding the role of UNIX in
server environments--where UNIX remains clearly superior to Windows for most applications, particularly the largest and most
critical.

> I would kill to be able to develop, compile,
> and execute my FreeBSD programs under Visual
> Studio.  I already do when I'm making it portable.

I use the Visual Studio source editor to write the code, then transfer the file to FreeBSD for compilation and linking.

> Saying Linux or FreeBSD is going to crush Windows
> any time soon, would be like the people who two or
> three years ago claimed that cable modems were
> going to put AOL out of business.

Neither Linux nor FreeBSD are even blips on the radar in the desktop market.  There's no point in fighting that war, since it's over
and UNIX lost.  Server systems are where the action is.

> I know, I make my living setting FreeBSD Server/
> Windows 2000 Desktop networks.

What arguments did you use to persuade clients to accept FreeBSD servers with Windows 2000 desktops--and why did you prefer that
configuration yourself (if you did)?

One problem with UNIX servers is that there is no equivalent desktop, whereas Windows has a desktop and server presence much more
equally (although the desktop is still significantly favored).  If users could be persuaded to adopt X terminals or something
comparable, suddenly UNIX would be in a very strong position indeed.  Current fashion favors complete PCs on the desktop, rather
than terminals, however ... even in situations where they really don't belong (such as many workplaces).


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