Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 20:11:00 -0600 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com> Cc: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee>, Dann Lunsford <dann@greycat.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: No port of Opera? (Was: ((FreeBSD : Linux) :: (OS/2 : Windows))) Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000706193313.04a8ca40@localhost> In-Reply-To: <53082.962927902@localhost> References: <Your message of "Thu, 06 Jul 2000 10:44:17 MDT." <4.3.2.7.2.20000706103005.00e05660@localhost>
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At 05:58 PM 7/6/2000, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: >Read my lips: Nobody is ever going to remove the linux compatability >code, it's too damn useful, end of discussion. It *is* useful, Jordan. It's useful to ensure that FreeBSD doesn't get native ports of applications. It's useful to maintain FreeBSD in its position of playing second fiddle to Linux forever. And it's useful to limit BSDi's profit potential and the extent of any rewards you personally are likely to reap -- ever -- from your many years of hard work on FreeBSD. I do NOT want to continue this thread for 300 messages, but fortunately, there's no need to. It can all be said in a few short paragraphs. Jordan, by putting out an OS which emulates a stronger competitor, while at the same time NOT providing FreeBSD API compatibility for other OSes, you're making two strategic errors that will sabotage not only your life's work so far but your own prospects for being justly and fairly compensated, and duly recognized, for what you do. That's not fair to you or to FreeBSD. >Not that I expect our very own Don Quixote and his donkey to resist >tilting at this particular windmill again, at least not without firing >at least a few shots at us for "our unbelievable short-sightedness" >(or some such variant on the above), but I suppose I can dream. You *are* dreaming, Jordan, but not in the way you think. YOU are the Quixotic one, not I, and you're dreaming in the same way Don Quixote does in the well-known musical "Man of La Mancha:" To dream the impossible dream; To fight the unbeatable foe; To bear with unbearable sorrow; To run where the brave dare not go.... (etc) Don Quixote is so immersed in his books that he loses touch with reality -- to the extent that he doesn't even snap out of it when he tilts at windmills until they beat him senseless. It really hurts to see this happen to you, especially when the beating in this case is coming at the hands of one Richard Stallman, a nasty demagogue if there ever was one. This is reality, Jordan. Linux emulation has gotten FreeBSD into serious trouble vis a vis third party application support -- the lifeblood of any operating environment. Only by taking correct and decisive action can it recover from that damage. I'm not proposing that Linux emulation be cut off instantly (since, as you say, it cannot and will not be) but rather that an exit strategy be devised for it -- at the end of which emulation will be neither desired nor needed by anyone. The only exit from the emulation trap (as I've already mentioned) involves turning the tables and executing the same "middleware" play that Microsoft so feared when it was executed by Sun and Netscape. Richard Stallman and the FSF are every bit as predatory and desirous of an all-encompassing empire as is Bill Gates, and only the same techniques that threatened to keep Microsoft in check will work to counter Linux's utter dominance in the sphere were FreeBSD should be thriving. Capisch? --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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