Re: [9fans] UN to fund linux for the 3rd world

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

Jeff Sickel <jas@corpus-callosum.com> writes:
> That's a good thing... lead/graphite doesn't wash away with 
> water/salts/acids as easily.

It also won't mark on a laminated map, which makes land nav with one
hard.  It also sucks when it breaks out in the field; sharpening a #2
pencil with a ka-bar is an interesting challenge.  Everyone ends up
taking pen anyway.

> For the larger picture: would folks at the UN even know that BSD, let 
> alone Plan 9, exists?  I'd wager they don't as even people who have 
> been exposed to alternative operating systems are likely to have never 
> even heard of them.  Linux, for better or worse, has mindset 
> market-share because people have been throwing enough money into the 
> advertising realm to make the name/brand known.
> 
> To quote/paraphrase an old friend's words:
> 
> Microsoft learned long ago that it was better to spend a dollar on 
> marketing than on development.

I think you're absolutely right.  That's what I find so depressing....

	- Dan C.