Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 16:56:01 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The desktop apathy? I think not. Message-ID: <15126.48625.740301.529399@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010531150115.00be5ee0@localhost> References: <20010531124519.SSJB28488.mta10.onebox.com@onebox.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010531150115.00be5ee0@localhost>
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Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> types: > At 07:03 AM 5/31/2001, Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > >So -- GNU comes to the rescue of Sun and HP? > The entire purpose of the GNU project was, and is, to kill > companies such as Sun and HP. That's more idiotic than Brett's usual treacle. HP isn't a software company, it's a hardware company. They don't write software to sell, they write software to help sell their hardware. They've always been willing to embrace anyone who could provide that software cheaper than they could. Getting someone else to write the software and give it to them for nothing is golden for them. Sun seems to be of two minds, but the one that makes a living peddling hardware is giving people what they want by moving to a standard desktop. Anyone aware enough to have their eyes open can see that the GPL is no more a poison pill than MS is. Possibly less - GPL software doesn't kill technically superior products the way MS does. GPL software - just like any free software - provides an alternative with a quality goal that isn't dictated by the bottom line. That makes life tough on any company trying to beat out the market leader by being technically superior, but if they're trying to beat a product that's already good enough for the mass market, they have no life anyway. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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