Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Unix Envy

Author:Tim Moore
Posted:3/12/1999; 9:32:24 AM
Topic:Unix Envy
Msg #:4030 (In response to 3990)
Prev/Next:4029 / 4031

Nope, ten points off. The API is just the beginning. If you want to woo desktop users to Linux it has to be standard for them to.

Why does it matter whether all Unix desktops are the same as long as they're internally consistent?

It's unquestionably bad when things move out from under you, but as long as the user is in control of the change, there's no reason to restrict it.

So if you want your OS to grow (as many say they do) then you must study what people like about Windows/Mac and do it too.

Can't argue with that :-)

I want to add that the way that free software works is really quite different from traditional software business. I know everyone's heard it before, but it really can't be emphasized enough. A lot of people look at it from the traditional perspective, and it's easy to be confused that way. You can see that in the way that many people try to force a corporate identity onto Linux (usually in the form of Red Hat).

When there's a single platform vendor (or even a consortium like the Open Group), it's easy to dictate standards. Apple or Microsoft make a decision, and most of their developers generally go along with it. If it's clear that the majority of your developers aren't going along, you kill the effort (e.g., OpenDoc).

In an open community of developers, it doesn't work quite that way. Nobody dictates standards: people write code and it either gets used or ignored. If enough people use it, it becomes a de facto standard (like X). But as long as a few people are willing to work on the code, a project can't be killed. If OpenDoc were free, it would probably still be alive today! That's why people aren't just picking a desktop environment -- there are currently three that are good enough to keep people going on them.

You may also want to note that the Open Group (the consortium of commercial Unix developers) has already chosen a desktop environment: CDE. CDE is the "standard" desktop for Unix, de jure. All of the commercial Unices have it.

But it's not free (by which I mean that it's neither zero-cost nor open source). Many people think it's awful (I haven't used it myself). You can get CDE for Linux, but few people do.

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