From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Nov 22 14:52:38 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from shell.webmaster.com (mail.webmaster.com [209.133.28.73]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 99CCF1506C for ; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:52:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from davids@webmaster.com) Received: from whenever ([209.133.29.2]) by shell.webmaster.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-12345L500S10000V35) with SMTP id com; Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:52:32 -0800 From: "David Schwartz" To: "Terry Lambert" Cc: Subject: RE: Judge: "Gates Was Main Culprit" Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:52:32 -0800 Message-ID: <000501bf353c$42b15110$021d85d1@youwant.to> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2377.0 Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 In-Reply-To: <199911222208.PAA00846@usr01.primenet.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > What I'm talking > > about is lock in to an inferior technology in the presence of a superior > > technology (one that's indisputably superior in the range of > 20% or more). > > > > > I can cite many examples of either, if you would clarify what it is > > > you are talking about. > > > > I'm talking about tipping or network affects locking us into an inferior > > technology. And the reason I don't think examples will be found is quite > > simple -- even though discarding compatability is painful, as > soon as it's > > profitable, we find a way to do it. > > > > We aren't still stuck using 8 bit computers, are we? > > No, we are stuck using 8MHz 16 bit I/O busses, incapable of > identifying all of the devices you plug into them, and incapable > of doing bys mastering into your full memory address space. We aren't stuck with them. We still have them, but we don't use them. This is a 'best of both worlds' situation. We still have compatability, but we don't have to suffer all the disadvantages. This is one way that lock in can be broken -- by maintaining compatability. > You might have an argument against inferior technologies after > the last ISA card is dead and buried, but don't bet on it: I > can't run arbitrary speeds between different PCI slots yet, > either. What's your point here? We have the options of both superior and inferior technologies. No one is locked into anything. This is a case of engineering ingenuity and market forces breaking lock in. > Also, look at PCMCIA: other standards were available, but it is on > an ENPIC by ENPIC basis whether or not hot plug is supported, and > in most cases where it's not, OS vendors are unwilling to do the > necessary work to make it robust in spite of that (c.f. FreeBSD, > any Microsoft OS, etc.). Right. I never said that the very best possible technology would always be brought to market. I simply said that market lock in wouldn't be able to hold us into significantly inferior technologies. DS To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message