From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Jul 17 23:23:49 1996 Return-Path: owner-chat Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id XAA29637 for chat-outgoing; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 23:23:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.HeadCandy.com (root@mindbender.headcandy.com [199.238.225.168]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id XAA29627; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 23:23:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.HeadCandy.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id XAA09725; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 23:23:41 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199607180623.XAA09725@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.HeadCandy.com: Host michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org cc: Matthew Jason White Subject: Re: Opinions? Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 23:23:41 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk He sent me a followup letter lamenting that he forgot to include the lists in his response. Being the kind person that I am, I'm forwarding this on. I had hoped the thread wouldn't continue on freebsd-current, but unfortunately, it did. So I'm including that group. I'll add that I pretty much agree with everything he says. ------- Forwarded Message Date: Thu, 18 Jul 96 02:08:36 -0400 From: Matthew Jason White To: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Subject: Re: Opinions? Excerpts from internet.computing.freebsd-current: 17-Jul-96 Re: Opinions? by M. HeadCandy.com@HeadCan > There are lots of other related areas where a free Unix, or even a > commercial Unix, might be the best choice. Maybe some kind of network > provider. Maybe a heavy-hit monster database server (although > Microsoft has been getting lots of good press on their database > performance). Maybe a huge simulation engine. Maybe just a monster > compute server. Don't forget research boxes. Most research I know of uses software running on Unix boxes of some sort. There are a number of reasons for this ranging from simple tradition to the expressiveness of Unix compared to other OSes. When you're writing a reference version of a program, you don't want to be burdened with also writing a GUI for it at the same time, which NT all but forces you to do (you *can* associate a console with a program, but this is not the default). Further, I think it's also safe to assume that Unix will remain a favorite among hackers everywhere just because it behaves the way we expect an OS to behave and emphasizes the things that a hacker generally wants emphasized. There's something about eighteen command pipelines that appeal to almost every hacker I know. Obscure command lines also seem aestheticly pleasing at times. So as long as hackers are valued people in research and industry, Unix will most likely have a secure home. I think this is an important thing to consider. As we expand FreeBSD (and NetBSD and Linux and OpenBSD...), we have to consider who our audience is and who we want it to be. I personally feel that it's fine to start to encroach on Win95 and NT territory by developing GUI apps and admin tools, as long as we don't alienate our history in the process. Hmmpf...you can tell that it's late 'cause I'm rambling on. I suppose I'll be happy with FreeBSD as long as I can pull up an xterm to do stuff in and I never have to prefix a pathname 'c:'. - -Matt - ----- Matt White Email: mwhite+@cmu.edu http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/mwhite/www/ ------- End of Forwarded Message