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Date:      14 Nov 1999 20:09:15 -0500
From:      Lowell Gilbert <lowell@world.std.com>
To:        freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Judge: "Gates Was Main Culprit"
Message-ID:  <rd63du8o91g.fsf@world.std.com>
In-Reply-To: "David Schwartz"'s message of Sun, 14 Nov 1999 16:03:04 -0800
References:  <000a01bf2efc$ca2434f0$021d85d1@youwant.to>

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"David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com> writes:

> Giorgos Keramidas wrote:

> > However, one something is in the application level, i.e. programs like
> > the browser, the word processor, the mail reader, hell even the mail
> > transfer agent, it is no longer part of the OS.
> 
> 	The line is very blurry. Where is command.com on MSDOS? Where is the
> defragmenter in Windows 98? Where is FreeBSD's 'sysctl'? Do you really want
> the government making the decision about what's part of an operating system
> and what isn't? I don't even think real technical experts can do it.

Before the fuss over Microsoft's bundling IE with Windows, I always
considered ftp to be part of the operating system.  On Windows *and*
Unix.  And try as I might, I can't see a difference between that and a
browser, other than historical accident.

Admittedly, you can have a usable system without either one, but
that's true of *most* of what ships with FreeBSD, and I always thought
a big advantage of FreeBSD was that it came as a "complete" system...

Be well.


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