From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 18 01:54:08 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A970716A4B3 for ; Thu, 18 Sep 2003 01:54:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: from firecrest.mail.pas.earthlink.net (firecrest.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.121.247]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CE69A43F3F for ; Thu, 18 Sep 2003 01:54:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from user-2ivfk1k.dialup.mindspring.com ([165.247.208.52] helo=mindspring.com) by firecrest.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19zuXb-0000lr-00; Thu, 18 Sep 2003 01:53:32 -0700 Message-ID: <3F697258.58B573C3@mindspring.com> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 01:52:40 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Johnson David References: <4BA256918ACE7449BD7896E65711C88B4A7F4C@1UPMC-MSX8.isdip.upmc.edu> <3F68B121.5020103@achean.com> <200309171237.12609.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a470ceb25c95867d6c8c7fd88754cc76d9350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Sorry. X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 08:54:08 -0000 Johnson David wrote: > On Wednesday 17 September 2003 12:08 pm, Jon Mercer wrote: > > 1. Desktop computing is hardly the area where massive efficiency is > > going to be all the rage in the future. Windows can hardly be > > described as the paragon of fast computing on the desktop. > > But unfortunately, the desktop is all anyone thinks about. Just look at > Linux. IBM, SGI and Sun are all gungho over Linux, the media is paying > attention, it's being scaled up to the really big iron and scaled down > to the smalled embedded devices. But all you ever hear from a lot of > *Linux* advocates is "Linux will fail without the desktop". They are correct. Without a viable alternative desktop, you are always in danger of a vendor wielding monopolistic power in the marketplace, and using that power to leverage a similar monopoly in the server space, squeezing you out via unfair trade practices. Yes, a monopolist would have to violate Sherman and probably RICO to do this, but it's been known to happen. > Maybe Linux will grab all the Fortune 500 companies. But I see no reason > why FreeBSD can't grab all of the small business market. I expect that it can't for the same reason IBM GSB was unable to grab that market: the market is not as homogenous as the people who refer to it as if it were one big lump would like to believe, and therefore you will never see a majority vendor for anything other than commodity products. I class Windows boxes as a commodity for the purposes of this discussion, and that's primarily because of their third party software base. -- Terry