From owner-freebsd-chat Thu May 31 4:12:10 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from nef.ens.fr (nef.ens.fr [129.199.96.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 475F337B423 for ; Thu, 31 May 2001 04:12:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from Rahul.Siddharthan@lpt.ens.fr) Received: from corto.lpt.ens.fr (corto.lpt.ens.fr [129.199.122.2]) by nef.ens.fr (8.10.1/1.01.28121999) with ESMTP id f4VBC4j88315 ; Thu, 31 May 2001 13:12:05 +0200 (CEST) Received: from (rsidd@localhost) by corto.lpt.ens.fr (8.9.3/jtpda-5.3.1) id NAA20445 ; Thu, 31 May 2001 13:12:43 +0200 (CEST) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:12:43 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Brett Glass Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The desktop apathy Message-ID: <20010531131243.C18115@lpt.ens.fr> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010527082742.049003f0@localhost> <20010527172838.A11174@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010528020324.0487b570@localhost> <20010528140153.A58103@h24-67-61-12.lb.shawcable.net> <4.3.2.7.2.20010528153532.0488ac10@localhost> <20010529112302.A3636@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010529112012.052768c0@localhost> <20010529194223.P3636@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010530225235.048b5bb0@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010530225235.048b5bb0@localhost>; from brett@lariat.org on Wed, May 30, 2001 at 10:54:30PM -0600 X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 3.4-STABLE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Brett Glass said on May 30, 2001 at 22:54:30: > >I don't care. Rather, I'm quite happy with that. If I were writing > >a commercial quality word processor for free, the GPL is the licence > >I'd choose. > > Alas, you've been a GPL zealot since I've first seen your postings > here. It is a testament to the tolerance of the BSD community that > you haven't been sent packing. Well, I see nothing wrong with the GPL -- to you, yes, that makes me a GPL zealot. And I don't know about the tolerance of the BSD community, but your tolerance, moderation and balanced viewpoint, of course, shine through in every posting. > >Would you rather pay $5000 per seat or whatever it was for crap like > >CDE? That's where we'd be if the GPL'd alternatives didn't exist. > > Bull. This is no more true than a claim that we'd all have to buy > Solaris were it not for Linux. Thanks to the BSDs, there is a truly > free alternative. Not for the desktop. Consider: in 1997 (when linux was roughly where BSD is now, in terms of mindshare) the desktop scene in linux was pathetic: Red Hat was actually selling a commercial port of CDE to linux. (This was before they "saw the light" about selling only free software.) Consider, also, that even *today* CDE is about the only option you have on a commercial unix -- unless you install something else by yourself. Unix used to dominate the workstation market in the early 1990s ("workstation" meant Unix, more or less), and look at that market today. Now Sun and HP are actually considering GNOME for their own desktops. The commercial guys didn't rescue the commercial Unix desktop, so I fail to see where your touching faith in their ability to rescue BSD (or Linux) comes from. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message