Re: Linux/OSS: doomed to a lifetime under Windows' thumb
Re: Linux/OSS: doomed to a lifetime under Windows' thumb
Ezekiel <y@r.com> wrote:
>
> "Ben" <beno1990@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:g60t3g$6uf$1@news.mixmin.net...
>> Rick wrote:
>>> Hopefully, in the near future, vendors will no longer feel compelled to
>>> add Windows based models.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'd love to see that happen, truth be told. And it's not just about Linux
>> for me. It's about genuine competition. I'd like to see at least 4
>> different OSs on the desktop market in good competition. I just think
>> Linux should be one of those 4.
>
> I understand what you're saying and in a way it sounds good. But in another
> way it also sounds impractical. Having 4 major OS's all competing for
> marketshare would be a pain for developers and manufacturers in some ways.
It worked in the 80s, when there were not only a dozen different operating
systems, but hardware platforms all vying for market share.
It's called competition, it drove innovation, the people who produced crap
or were badly managed fell by the wayside, the people who produced good
quality stuff succeeded until the next generation of computers arrived and
it was back to square one.
> It's bad enough (as in difficult and complicated enough) properly developing
> for and supporting a single OS. Trying to write a product to support 4
> different operating systems would be expensive for the smaller companies.
Not if they use the correct tools, in which case they can produce identical
software for all platforms with minimal (or no) tweeking.
Using gtk or Qt libraries... (or wx or sdl for that matter), they could
produce software that would compile and run on windows, OS X, linux and
the BSDs. OK, the binaries would differ for each, but it's just the matter
of running a crossplatform compile for each.
This is what opera do. They produce opera for all of those platforms and
more. Do you think they wrote opera differently for each platform? Or just
have a single source tree?
> There are advantages to having large percentages of people running the same
> OS.
Just as there are advantages to growing the same strain of potato...
It's cheaper that way. But the disadvantages...
We all know what happened in ireland...
It's called monoculture and it leaves you wide open for mass exploits and
viruses. Something the diversity of linux and the BSDs happily avoid.
> What would it be like if there were 4-5 "choices" for electrical service
> and each electric company had it's own voltage and frequency. An "appliance"
> that you use with one power company wouldn't be compatible with the
> voltages/frequency of another power company.
Bad example. That's why STANDARDS exist, and it's possible for different
platforms to all abide by the same standards...
Unless you're microsoft, in which case you'll go out of your way to tag on
illegal extensions in the hope of snuffing out the competition.
(See HTML and Java as examples of this phenominon)
>
> Obviously it's less than ideal to have a single (monopoly-like) supplier for
> the OS that ninety-something percent of the population uses. But the other
> extreme (having many different/incompatible OSes) isn't also without
> problems.
The OSes aren't incompatible in the important respects though.
OK, so you need a different binary to run on each (or run an API conversion
layer like WINE or the BSD linux compatibility layer). But the source for
each platform can be the same if done properly.
>> Also, if ReactOS is a success, that might knock down the Windows market
>> share a little by those who want a Windows binary compatible OS for free.
>
> I never heard of ReactOS. The problem with these attempts is that Windows
> changes too quickly for the project to keep up.
And this is why flatty constantly derides wine...
Because windows changes so quickly, wine is always playing catchup.
He doesn't appear to grasp this. (he does of course, but he likes to make
out that it's wine's fault)
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