Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 23:48:09 +1100 From: David Gerard <fun@thingy.apana.org.au> To: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Worse is better (was Sun revokes FreeBSD license for Java) Message-ID: <20050106124809.GE2280@thingy.apana.org.au> In-Reply-To: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIEPDEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> References: <20050106071152.GF12003@lb.tenfour> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIEPDEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt (tedm@toybox.placo.com) [050106 18:26]:
> Name of the game with commercialized technology which is filled with example
> after
> of example of second and 3rd rater products that win the market from 1st
> rater
> products merely because their marketing is better. Let's see, in automotive
> we have lap&shoulder belts vs 5 point harnesses, or for that matter airbags
> vs seatbelts,
> in television we have Betamax vs VHS, in computing we have Windows vs Mac,
> NT vs OS/2,
> Linux vs FreeBSD ... ;-)
Unix vs. the more correct systems that came before it. See 'Worse is
better' and 'The UNIX-HATERS Handbook':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX-HATERS_Handbook
A lot of it is 'the whole widget' - the technology is worse, but other
reasons give a decisive advantage. VHS tapes ran longer sooner than Beta.
Unix was cheap and portable. X was open source, NeWS wasn't. Etc.
- d.
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