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Date:      Sun, 9 Jul 2000 13:35:39 -0700
From:      "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com>
To:        "Brett Glass" <brett@lariat.org>
Cc:        <chat@FreeBSD.ORG>, <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: Emulation (Was: No port of Opera?)
Message-ID:  <NCBBLIEPOCNJOAEKBEAKGEMEJJAA.davids@webmaster.com>
In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20000709122318.04a05100@localhost>

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> > 1) The non-native build works perfectly under FreeBSD.
> > (In which case,
> > except for OS bigotry, there is no reason to have a
> > FreeBSD-native version.)

> Not so. Users still won't be supported on a platform other than
> the one for which the binary is targeted.

	They may or may not be. If the company has any interest at all in
supporting FreeBSD and it can do it as easily as just saying, "We support
running our Linux build under FreeBSD", then they will do that. If they have
no interest in supporting FreeBSD at all, then that's just that. You can't
force their interest.

> Also, you are making the dangerous  assumption
> that the emulation is perfect and will always be so. This is not
> wise. The next version might be Linux-specific.

	Assuming they don't support FreeBSD at all. In which case, nobody will be
any worse off than if it never worked under FreeBSD. As a slight plus, the
company will have a whole bunch of people complaining that they don't work
under FreeBSD any more. That might generate a response.

> >        2) A native build would work significantly better. (In
> > which case, the only
> > reason for the company not to make a native build is if it
> > doesn't justify
> > the improvement (in which case, they _shouldn't_ make one just
> > to make the
> > FreeBSD crowd happy), or it does (in which case, if they're
> > smart, they'll
> > make one.)

> Unless FreeBSD users refuse to use the Linux build under emulation,
> there will be no reason to "make the FreeBSD crowd happy."

	That would be an incredibly irrational thing to do. I know that I
personally ignore any such customer demands that don't have technical or
business merit. And if some group of people is a constant source of such
bigoted or religious requests, I tell them to go take a long walk off a
short pier.

	As an example, I constantly get asked why we don't provide more support for
things like COM and ODBC. There's no technical argument why we should use
such things. They're mostly not platform-independent and mostly don't do
anything useful. Do you think I listen to these people? Do you think they
affect our technology plans?

	If I present someone with a solution that works and they just refuse to use
it, well, tough shit for them. On the other hand, if they have an actual
technical problem and it's in my power to solve it, I'll go out of my way to
make things work.

	The finer and finer the hairs you try to split the less these points are
likely to have any relevance in the real world.

	DS



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