Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 19:23:44 +0200 From: Peter Korsten <peter@grendel.IAEhv.nl> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Microsoft brainrot (was: r-cmds and DNS and /etc/host.conf) Message-ID: <19970930192344.25916@grendel.IAEhv.nl> In-Reply-To: <199709301307.WAA00501@word.smith.net.au>; from Mike Smith on Tue, Sep 30, 1997 at 10:37:16PM %2B0930 References: <19970930100711.04631@shale.csir.co.za> <199709301307.WAA00501@word.smith.net.au>
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Mike Smith shared with us:
>
> [the discussion was about GUI's and browsers]
>
> Also consider that whatever the interface, it has to work with a
> textmode browser (ie. lynx).
Aren't you the guy who said I was totally failing to get the point
you were making?
We began with graphical user interfaces. Then we got to implementing
those in a browser (which I think is the user interface of at least
the near future).
And now you want a fallback to - yes - a text interface. And also
one for browsers that don't support Java. Talking about missing
the point.
We already _have_ a text interface. If you want to use a kermit
client over a 75 baud barbed wire in upper Mongolia, please go
ahead.
But no IT professional in his right mind uses a monitor less than
17" on a fast workstation. For any imaginable system on the market,
there is Netscape. Netscape has Java. If even you would use Internet
Explorer on a 386 with Windows 3.1 to administer a FreeBSD server,
I really don't care.
Noone cares about browsers that don't support Java or graphics.
I make a living writing software for web sites and these issues
are _not_ taken into consideration.
> Keep brainstorming. If you can get past these sort of objections, we
> all win.
Perhaps I'm a bit bitter here, but stepping out into the light
might help at times. At out firm, the balance is clearly shifting
from FreeBSD towards NT. We're programmers and NT is more suited
for development than FreeBSD. Let me keep it at that, we don't need
another NT-vs-Unix discussion.
It's not something I particulary like, this shift, but it's something
that I notice. If issues like security and backwards compatibility
with text terminals and serial interfaces keep standing in the way
of developments like this, it's a lost battle. The thing will be
secure in the end. It just doesn't have to be right away.
Make a beta release, with a larger-than-life disclaimer that the
thing is not finished and not at all secure. "FreeBSD hereby blah
blah own fault blah blah asked for it blah blah go away." MS does
it with about all of their new products and everybody is very
anxious to try them. Maybe you would get some exposure with it, or
support from other communities like *BSD or Linux.
Just make the darn thing. Or support it, at least in spirit, even
if it isn't 100% secure or compatible. There's a firm making billions
of dollars with stuff that isn't secure nor compatible.
- Peter
P.S. I'm going to adjust my mail filter in a short while, so if
people start receiving 'message refused' messages from me,
that's because you sent it to the list as well as to me.
Editting your headers solves the problem.
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