Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 01:46:04 -0400 From: "Pedro F. Giffuni" <pfg1+@pitt.edu> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The desktop apathy Message-ID: <3B11E61C.95D0BA0D@pitt.edu> References: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0105252316300.294-100000@molly.telia.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010527082742.049003f0@localhost> <20010527172838.A11174@lpt.ens.fr>
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Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
>
...
>
> I do, however, doubt very much that anyone will develop a BSD-licensed
> desktop environment. The BSD license is geared to some things, and
> not to some other things, and I think it is attractive for a program
> like bzip2 (where the aim is to establish a standard), but
> fundamentally unattractive for a desktop environment or a word
> processor. Any such effort will be GPL (or similarly restrictive
> license) or out-and-out commercial.
>
I do think you have a point here. Staroffice has practically all the
functionally of MS office (haven't checked the spreadsheet though) and
the license is restricted. However, even if the applications are
MS-compatible there seems to be something missing.
Technically speaking there is little the kernel can do to improve the
situation, so making any distinction between Linux and FreeBSD is
pointless. The problem might require having someone redesign X with an
Object Oriented approach. But the experience with Beos (whom I recall
opensourced their UI) shows the problem is nontechnical.
I think Jordan's article holds the key to this situation. Apple might
be the David that is required to take the desktop out from Microsoft's
field and hopefully also will take us to a better league. FWIW, I also
think Apple has a good chance now that MS is screwing up with their
.net strategy.
Pedro.
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