Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:52:32 -0800 From: "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com> To: "Terry Lambert" <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Judge: "Gates Was Main Culprit" Message-ID: <000501bf353c$42b15110$021d85d1@youwant.to> In-Reply-To: <199911222208.PAA00846@usr01.primenet.com>
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> > 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
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