Fred,
What I would really like to see is more independent research comparing NT and
Linux. NT is not some fly-by-night OS that has no engineering merit. It was
designed under the direction of one of the OS pioneers, Dave Cutler. MS put a
lot of though and talent into creating the OS. One of the key features of NT is
its relative modularity. This should allow MS to modify and improve their design
with considerable flexibility. I don't trust results from research sponsored by
MS, but I don't have much information from independent sources as to how NT really
stacks up against Linux.
The very strength Gates claims for NT may be the weakness that Linux will exploit
against it. That is the decentralized control of development. Linux is developed
in an environment where ideas are offered up to the community. If people like them
they grow and become popular. Sure good ideas will be overlooked, but bad ideas
will most likely be short lived, and eliminated from the system. Yes there are
(more than) five different DMs for Linux. That's fine by me. The strength of
this is that good ideas from one DM can freely be adapted to another.
A weakness that Linux seems to possess is that contributions come from several
different developers all of whom have their own perspectives and limited
understanding of the overall system. This means that, to some extent, one hand
doesn't know what the other is doing. I'm sure this happens in organizations such
as MS, but it seems to be more controllable there. Again this weakness my turn
out to be a strength, in that the independence of components may be forced on
Linux by the failure of interdependent designs. That is, if people design
components that rely to heavily on the inner working of other components they are
likely to break when the supporting components are modified and so will either
lose popularity, or they will be modified in such a way as to become more
disciplined in their interface to the overall system.
The upshot of what I'm trying to say is, I believe the Linux verses NT contest is
an interesting and instructive phenomenon. If one side is indeed using FUD
tactics to advance their product, the other should not respond with FUD, but with
results. We should examine the criticism and evaluate its merit. Then we should
adapt our collective behavior to address the weaknesses in our approach.
Steve
"Fred A. Miller" wrote:
> Ya really should read this one! If Gates is quiet about other software, he
> normally isn't too worried about it. Now, he's talking, and he's FUDing...big
> time, and he's doing all he can to get a few "flakes" in the industry to rig a
> test showing NT is better. Amazing......he's still fighting with the DOJ, and
> HAS to know that if he goes back to court next month without a settlement with
> the DOJ, Jackson is going to come down VERY hard on MS, and he's pulling all
> these stunts. Anyway, Linux IS "getting" to him....no doubt about that.
>
> Fred
>
> http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2241918,00.html
> --
> To get out of this list, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
> this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e
> Check out the SuSE-FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/ and the
> archive at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
--
To get out of this list, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e
Check out the SuSE-FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/ and the
archive at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
