Re: Warning: Rant. Please disregard. [Was: Re: [9fans] Is IBM

[Dave Lukes <davel@iontrading.com>]

Douglas A. Gwyn wrote:
>  Dave Lukes wrote:
> > Given a wonderful OS used by 10 people or a crap OS used by 10E6
> > people, I'll take the former.

>  The problem with that is that, except perhaps for research purposes,
>  an OS is not an end in itself, but rather a platform supporting
>  applications, which are what actually satisfy human needs.

To be specific:
    the _percieved_ _needs_ of _it's_ user base.

 > As time goes on, the popular platforms acquire a large number of apps 
that
>  become ever more essential

"Essential"?
AFAIK the list of human "essentials" still only includes
air, water, food, shelter and sex*.
All the rest is window dressing.

The above may sound facetious but is seriously intended:
what your user community views as essential is down to that community,
not down to some perceived need for global conformity.

>  (PDF reader or MPG viewer, for example).
Why does one _need_ an mpg viewer?

>  If the OS developer population is below some critical mass, it can't
>  keep up with such user requirements and eventually the platform
>  becomes in effect unusable for what have become everyday needs.

I refer to my formula-1 analogy.
a Ferrari _is_ "in effect unusable for ... everyday needs",
yet I hear no-one decrying the imminent demise of the brand.

>  (There are similar problems in keeping up with device driver support
>  for new hardware.)

Again, by analogy, F-1 teams don't suffer from this problem.
i.e. there are solutions to this, but they involve lots of money ....

 >   Linux seems to have reached the critical
>  threshold, so it is "alive and well"; Plan9 seems to be well below
>  that threshold, and has become largely irrelevant, except perhaps as
>  a testing ground for ideas that may get adopted into more popular
>  platforms.

Hmmm ... Bit like a formula-1 car, really ...

D.


* and chocolate or course.

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