Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 07 Jul 2000 10:04:50 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@nwlink.com>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: No port of Opera? (Was: ((FreeBSD : Linux) :: (OS/2 :  Windows))) 
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20000707095841.047c6ee0@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.1000707000143.14345H-100000@utah>
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20000706193313.04a8ca40@localhost>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 01:12 AM 7/7/2000, Jason C. Wells wrote:

>I have read this sort of stuff before. I just wanted to check in on
>Jordan's behalf so that he knows there are FreeBSDites who are in favor of
>the emulation. 

As I've said before, the emulation is a useful workaround for some of
them. BUT THEY SHOULD NOT RELY ON IT IN THE LONG RUN! Right now, alas,
the emulation is driving applications vendors away from creating native
ports, which in turn is hurting the platform and increasing reliance
upon the emulator. This is not a good thing.

>Stallman, GPL, none of that matters to me as I consider
>the usefulness of my OS of choice.

It should matter to you, because it is the thing that most seriously
threatens your ability to choose in the future.

>I am sure I could write a great dissertation on the matter. One fact
>remains, after three years of dire warning FreeBSD still seems to be doing
>quite well. My -questions traffic is twice what it used to be. 

Alas, FreeBSD's market share relative to that of Linux appears to be 
going DOWN, not up. And the situation vis-a-vis native ports is
terrible: after three years, FreeBSD has LOST, not gained, native
ports. This is a serious threat to the health of the platform. I've
done what I could to promote the BSDs, and in fact have made some
serious progress in this area (though certain folks -- ahem! -- still
seem reluctant to acknowedge it). But emulation is the greatest thorn
in FreeBSD's side as a platform.

--Brett



To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.3.2.7.2.20000707095841.047c6ee0>