>On Mon, 15 Oct 2001 11:23:34 -0700 (PDT) "Dr. Yasha Karant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote. >I suppose that this is a silly question, but perhaps someone could >kindly answer it. > >MS Windows will not go away anytime soon, not because of any good features >in MS Windows, but because MS has monopolized the end-user application market >with proprietary format applications -- e.g., a MS Word DOC file does not >properly import/translate into open systems applications on a realiable basis >(e.g., StarOffice, Applixware, WordPerfect, etc.). Moreover, Mr. Gates in >his infinite avarice will not allow his applications to be ported to other >environments (e.g., X windows). >
I'm working on this see www.sourceforge.net/projects/poi >Thus, one is forced to use MS Windows applications. These applications >can run under three environments: MS Windows native (in control of the >platform), MS Windows in a sandbox (Plex86, VMWare, SoftPC), or MS Windows ABI >emulation (the Wine/Wabi approach). Given that Mr. Gates keeps enough of the >real ABI secret, and changes it often enough, only the first two are viable, >and I only like the second -- MS Win in a sandbox. > >At present, only Plex86 offered us the opportunity to do this without paying >huge amounts of money to the Stanford folks from VMWare -- Plex86 behaved in >a GPL fashion in the interest of the community, not in the interest of greed. >With the dissolution of Plex86, what happens? Who will develop it? Is Sun >wealthy enough to develop as they did StarOffice? If not, chalk another one >up for Mr. Gates. (NO -- I do not have sufficient graduate students to >develop it.) > I still hope someone will pick this up. I can't believe no one would want this in their business model. I mean it seems a logical fit for companies migrating to linux servers. >Yasha Karant > >> >> I'm sitting here layed off, too. And the only time I donated money to >> MandrakeSoft (so far), it was earmarked for Plex86. This is very sad. I was >> hoping your employment with them would make a huge contribution toward >> running Windows under Linux until Windows could be painlessly amputated from >> my systems. >> >> On Monday 15 October 2001 08:34 am, you wrote: >> > Well, my employment with MandrakeSoft is officially terminated, >> > as a result of layoffs. >> > >> > I have no idea at this point what I'll be doing next, >> > or where my future involvement in plex86 stands. >> > >> > I'm going to entertain many ideas ranging from work on plex86, >> > to moving on to something completely different. >> > >> > If anybody has any serious thoughts, feel free to send them >> > to me at my new email address: >> > >> > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > >> > Though please, if you want to send only sentiments, keep them. >> > Pleasant thoughts are appreciated, but I need to keep email to >> > a minimum of important messages. >> > >> > FWIW, I'm packing really light these days (moving to a foreign >> > country does that to a person), so I can consider moving to many >> > places (ones that are safe for Americans anyways). And honestly, >> > if I go into working on a project in the commercial dimension, >> > something fun would be nice, but I'm going to heavily consider >> > money. >> > >> > Regards, >> > -Kevin >> > >
