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Date:      Mon, 13 Apr 1998 21:56:47 -0400
From:      "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>
To:        Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com>
Cc:        "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@narnia.plutotech.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Open Source Products
Message-ID:  <19980413215647.37918@snark.thyrsus.com>
In-Reply-To: <3532AD36.2968F8B6@xylan.com>; from Wes Peters on Mon, Apr 13, 1998 at 06:26:31PM -0600
References:  <199804131719.LAA21122@narnia.plutotech.com> <35326353.4E30451B@xylan.com> <19980413201541.65522@snark.thyrsus.com> <3532AD36.2968F8B6@xylan.com>

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Wes Peters <wpeters@xylan.com>:
> A third scenario that is less likely but would still help would be
> convergence of the disparate groups back into one organization.  It's
> really too bad we have to have three web sites, three ftp server
> organizations, three differing (and more or less successful) CD-ROM
> programs, etc., for what are very similar products.

That's the key thing, IMO.  The fact that the BSD crowd is split into
squabbling spinoff-group-of-the-week factions, while Linux looks
pretty much like one big happy family united under benign Daddy
Torvalds, negates every single technical advantage you guys have.

> At some time, once Linux starts getting really entrenched in a couple
> of highly visible businesses, somebody's going to hit a snag running
> a TurboLinux application on a RedHat server or some such silly bunch
> of rot, and they're going to tell some hare-brained "journalist" 
> about it, and the PC rags are going to have a heyday.  "See, we told
> you this Linux stuff was for the birds, trust Microsoft.  Their
> products are perfect, and their dedicated support staff will take care
> of you."

It would be *very* unwise to hope for this.  For one thing, if your
story about BSD being preferable for highly-stressed, high-throughput
network servers is true, it's about as likely you'll get bit as a
Linux box will.  And, in any case, if you think the pinheads who
inhabit the trade press wouldn't rush to interpret a conspicuous Linux
failure as a slam on *all* open-source/Unix OSs, you're dreaming.
-- 
		<a href="http://sagan.earthspace.net/~esr">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue
out because I might yell `Fire!' in a crowded theater."
        -- Peter Venetoklis

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