[ruminations on a "GMail Killer"] I wonder if the feeling is not so much being daunted by Google, but rather that the thought of building a GMail Killer is not very interesting. I find that Open Source projects tend to assign small value to competition, preferring to do what no one else is doing. Even with Microsoft, the competition tends to be focused on staking out and defending interesting territory where they can be safely ignored.
And, Open Source has deep roots in Unix culture, where there is a conscious effort *not* to design huge all-encompassing things, but rather excellent small tools that can be assembled into Grand Designs by others. That's one reason I'm a Mutt user: I get a nice simple MUA that also has all the capabilities of any specialized content handler I am clever enough to plumb into it. (That, and that it naturally ignores all the distracting glitter-glue stuff unless I specifically ask to see some. Liking that places me firmly in the minority, but I'm happy there.) -- Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer mw...@iupui.edu I don't do "doorbusters".
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