Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:16:05 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: jehamby@lightside.com (Jake Hamby) Cc: hasty@rah.star-gate.com, root@dihelix.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Quake's out, where's that Linux ELF emulation? Message-ID: <199602282016.NAA08729@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.AUX.3.91.960228091220.23617B-100000@covina.lightside.com> from "Jake Hamby" at Feb 28, 96 09:29:07 am
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> > > ID is one thing but if there is a company to go after right now, it > > > looks like it should be Caldera. > > > > > > >From the looks of things they may single-handedly make Linux the > > > MS-DOS of the '90s (*sigh*) > > > > Yeap, you got a point. > > There are degrees of extreme linux fanaticims. Caldera has to be right up > > there. [ ... ] > As for Caldera, now that is the example of the kind of software we should > be trying to get natively for FreeBSD, not the latest spiffy game. > Still, in order to do so, we would have to convince the people with the > money, that FreeBSD is superior for DESKTOP use, which is a bit harder > point to argue than its usability as an Internet server. I know nearly *everybody* at Caldera. I either worked with them, on the same floor as them, or one floor above in the small building we all occupied. There are two exceptions: one of the guys hired out of Novell Provo, and the German guy (Peter?) who pushed WWW at Novell and got (internally, at least) famous as well. I think the biggest GPL fanatic there is Jim Freeman (hi Jim!) and it doesn't make him anything less than a great guy. The point about "is it a good desktop" is pretty moot. I remember the meeting with Kanwahl Rheki in the downstairs conference room; Ray Noorda was attending. KR was VP over Novell/USG immediately following the USL purchase, and he was announcing "deemphasizing UnixWare as a destop OS". This was right after the DR-DOS life cycle termination. After a series of questions and answers about the lawsuit, we moved on to other topics, and I asked "will UnixWare be sold as a desktop OS?" The answer was "No". I asked "will DR DOS be developed further?" The answer was "No". I asked "then what *Novell* operating system will people be running on their desktop?" The answer was hemming and hawing. Then Ray left. For Caldera, FreeBSD isn't the enemy: Microsoft is. But I think you are deluding yourself if you think they are going to switch horses or try to ride two horses in their race to beat Microsoft. If you want something similar for FreeBSD, then you need to make a similar commitment, in terms of willingness to throw everything you have behind a business idea. And risk it all, like Caldera has. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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