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Subject: Re: Good news -- pipe stuff
To: tinguely@plains.nodak.edu (Mark Tinguely)
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 96 10:49:56 MET
From: Greg Lehey <lehey.pad@sni.de>
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199601291647.KAA07920@plains.nodak.edu>; from "Mark Tinguely" at Jan 29, 96 10:47 am
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> I listened to the talk via the MBONE and could not believe their methodology
> and that USENIX would accept the paper.
>
> I agree with your statement they did not quantify/qualify the Linux/FreeBSD/
> Solaris user count and support. They seem to make the implication that only
> Linux was widely used and had a large base of supporters. That rubbed me the
> wrong way more than anything else.

Sad.

> It seemed the conference had a large Linux bias. In the next talk (by Carl
> Staelin or was it Larry McVoy from SGI), the speaker said he will not be
> happy until Linux was running on all machines (a bold statement from a
> person that is employed by company that sells their own version of Unix).

Is the bias towards Linux or towards free UNIX?  Recall that in the
minds of most people, this is the same thing.  From a FreeBSD
standpoint, it's important to remember that the Linux crowd are closer
to us than anybody else.  They just got off to a less encumbered
start.  If you knock the Linux supporters, you're rejecting a lot of
potential FreeBSD supporters.

> I think the major Unix producers should look at the projected P6 numbers and
> glowing praise of free unix-clones and (in the words of Staelin/McVoy talking
> about the P6), "be afraid, be very afraid".

Yes, they should look at the combination.  Whether they should be
afraid or happy depends on how they intend to treat what they find.

Greg