On Tue, 23 Jun 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> 2. Tier One applications. The leading applications must
Fortunately some Tier One applications are coming to Linux. There's
WordPerfect and friends, Star Office, Oracle (which SCO version works, as
I just learned), Netscape, as well as the traditional server apps that
have always worked on Linux. Others like GIMP make good replacements for
"traditional" killer apps. The only thing missing is a really excellent
spreadsheet...
> 3. A standard interface. This issue will prove hardest
Can't be done. The "establishment" over-glorifies standard interfaces.
We already have KDE and Gnome cooking. That's as much as a standard as we
need. They seem to want the "horse designed by a committee" standards
like CDE or standards-by-fiat like Win9x. Neither of those is suitable to
the Linux committee.
More important than an OS-wide "standard interface" is that all the
systems in a given organization be configured similarly. Linux excels at
this and Windows does not, but no one seems to mind because the close
boxes under Windows all look the same.
> standard. Remember, the core community is made up of Unix
> geeks who think graphical interfaces are for sissies.
That's not the problem. The problem is that the core community is made up
of Unix geeks who don't like enforced standards. :)
Linux didn't seem to have any problems emulating the "standard" of Unix
itself. And they didn't even get to design that. The problem is
convincing the hackers that the standard is worthwhile. That's something
that Gnome (and KDE to some extent) have going for them - support of the
Linux community.
You can't just say "this will hereby become the Linux user interface
standard." It will never fly. Like everything else in Linux, the right
standard will materialize when it is needed. Right now it is still
beaming in. :)
> Would you like to see the rug pulled out from under Microsoft?
> Here's how it could happen. IBM ships and supports Linux.
Why? Who needs (or wants) IBM around? Remember: if it's small enough to
fit in a single room, IBM doesn't understand it. IBM can't compete with
Microsoft with their own OSes, both of which were technically good enough.
Who thinks they could do it now?
> Oracle does Linux versions of all its products.
Oracle has a small but devoted Linux following already. There are
programmers that want to do the port. Oracle is afraid of piracy and
supporting it. What, are they afraid they'd have too many customers?
Of course, we have the SCO version already of the server... :)
> A consortium of top vendors picks a standard Linux interface and
> creates a compatibility logo.
As I just said, this won't fly. But Gnome is evolving to fill that need.
If KDE had better licensing, it probably already would have; but it makes
the hackers nervous.
And they can't spell Torvalds. :)
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