Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 18:56:24 -0400 From: "Jason" <kib@poboxes.com> To: "Frank Pawlak" <fpawlak@execpc.com>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: "Amancio Hasty" <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>, "Gary Kline" <kline@tera.tera.com>, "Atipa" <freebsd@atipa.com>, <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Why we should support Microsoft... Message-ID: <008e01bd850b$b103e980$023aa8c0@kib.kib.net>
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-----Original Message----- From: Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com> To: Jason <kib@poboxes.com>; Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>; Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@time.cdrom.com> Cc: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com>; Gary Kline <kline@tera.tera.com>; Atipa <freebsd@atipa.com>; freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Date: Thursday, May 21, 1998 12:57 AM Subject: Re: Why we should support Microsoft... >Jason, you fail to understand how monopoly power works in the market place. M$ >already dominates the desktop OS environment, and are gaining ground in the >server market. Open source software is presently not well received in the >corporate world. The more M$ dominates the less chance any competitive OS has >of getting accepted much less gain market share. You are clearly missing the >big picture or are very naive and are equating the "cult users" of free >software with the commercial world where the money is made in software. > Monopoly power very simply means that there is one supplier and everyone else >is out or going out of the business. There are no other choices. > >Compared to M$ FreeBSD is hardly a blip on anyone's radar screen, and the more >they dominate the smaller that blip will get until it disappears. > >After reading a few of your posts, I wonder if you are just not making >arguments for arguments sake. > >Frank > I am making arguement for the sake of my opinion. I am not the only one out here who thinks this way Below is an excerpt from the Austrailians Visual Developers Forum. http://www.gui.com.au/avdf -Start- by Mark Trescowthick - AVDF Editor Lawsuits Will this nonsense ever end? Without taking sides, could someone please talk some sense into Sun and MS? The latest developments see MS allegedly planning to remove all Java support from the "default" version of IE5 and the US DoJ pondering whether or not they'll sue MS to stop the release of Windows 98 (see below). That latter thought prompted a letter from 20 or 30 companies (with HP, Intel and Compaq among them) suggesting that this would not be a good idea. Understatement, I'd say. But not really a surprise in some ways... once you allow the legals to run the joint, that's the sort of thing that's going to happen. And Netscape / Sun reckon that MS are the ones stifling development? Let's just hope that those companies also send MS a letter saying that dropping Java is also a bad idea. Although, having had that piece of alleged "info" leak at a developers conference, MS do seem to be backing away rapidly. The idea that a browser could be shipped without a JVM is this day and age seems ludicrous, and looks, frankly, plain petulant. Mind you, a browser which provided the ability to swap JVMs would be a huge step forward - so long as it shipped with a default! I mused in these pages some months ago as to just where Sun and Netscape thought they were taking the industry by wheeling out the lawyers to achieve what their respective products couldn't. There was always the risk that, once it started, a legal fight might take unexpected turns. And, if the DoJ succeed in having Windows 98 delayed (or even stopped) because it includes IE4, then the worst case scenario would suddenly be looking awfully possible. I ask the question again : "Who do you want running the computer industry"? If it's the US DoJ, then you're on a good thing. If it's anyone else (like, for example, consumers, developers, software companies, MS, Sun, Netscape or IBM) then you should be standing up right now and saying so, to anyone who'll listen. Legal maneuverings are not the answer, but it may now be too late. If the DoJ decide to press on, then not much can be done to stop them. I'm the first to admit MS is no saint, but it's one heck of a lot better than the US DoJ. Perhaps once the DoJ have finished on MS, they'll decide that no vendor should be allowed to do an NC as well as be a sponsor of Java. Or that no official standards enforcer for Java should be allowed to develop a JVM. Or that browser vendors may not also sell server products. I can see perfectly reasonable arguments for all three propositions. -end- Jason To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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