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

Userland perpetuates the homegenous enviroment

Author:Simon Higgs
Posted:3/6/1999; 2:13:11 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 3/5/99
Msg #:3739 (In response to 3709)
Prev/Next:3738 / 3740

Dave,

I agree with Oliver. You're dwelling on what has been, and not what is or will be.

Up until now, the end users have been locked into the OS, and are forced to use whatever they are given (have you got your refund from Microsoft yet?). What you're missing is the future of portable applications which are independant of the OS. This is one of the true benefits of Open Source right now, but this will evolve to include cross-platform binaries, some of which are already here.

I take the same apps around with me irrespective of the OS. Yes, most of these have been server apps, like BIND or Apache, but this year I've started finding better end user apps (even a couple of useable web browsers), and the big shocker... user friendly X Windows environments.

There's a lot of money going into support infrastructure for non-Microsoft ventures (that includes Apple, give or take $150M), and the paradigm surrounding the OS market has already shifted. It's visible in the server market right now, but you know how big icebergs get. I'd hate to see Frontier renamed "scripting's Titanic".

Here's what my take on this is for Frontier. Userland currently forces end-users into the old paradigm, where the developer is forced into a homegenous OS enviroment where the OS is neither stable or even compatible with itself most of the time, yet you're totally locked into it. XML makes this OK? Not on your life.

While there's no reason for Userland to release it's source code or proprietary information, the platform choices it makes for the developer limit it's potential and chances for adoption. Now that there are serious players with large sums of money in the game (Intel, Corel, Oracle, etc.), it's probably worth taking a little more notice of the avenues that are available. Given that you are providing a server application, you should probable release it on a stable server platform. And porting some C code to an open source platform is... um... nothing to be ashamed about.

;-)

Simon

P.S. Ebay would be just another Frontier app on a stable platform.

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