Re: Grateful Dead Marketing

[msimon@xxxxxxxxxx (M. Simon)]

The problem with a Microsoft Linux is that they will NOT distribute
source code.

Simon
==============================================
>
>At 20:55 19990317 GMT, Dan C. Rinnert wrote:
>>It's true that Linux has done well with the free model, but not as well as
>>commercial operating systems.  How many more Linux users do you think there
>>would be today if, five years ago, there was a "Microsoft Linux" or "IBM
>>Linux"?  I would think that more people would have purchased the M$ Linux
>>system than would have downloaded the free Linux systems.
>
>Microsoft owns the name Xenix (was SCO's Unix before they
>were allowed to call it Unix) and contributed quite a lot to it.
>Like the quite good C compiler and the assembler. (Unfortunately
>I don't know the exact details but I believe that originally MS
>set-up Xenix as the new universal OS but gave up after it didn't
>sell well enough. SCO took over then to sell it in a niche market.
>
>Xenix was very expensive. I think it sold for about $1250 (over here)
>for the Basic OS and another $1250 for the C compiler. Everything
>else also had to be bought seperately, like a GUI and network
>capabilities. Xenix was quite user friendly and became the best
>selling Unix ever.
>
>The fact that Linux is for free is indeed a problem as it is perceived
>(especially by Americans) as inferior. Part of the problem is also
>that there used to be no support for Linux. Currently with companies
>like Red Hat, Caldera, S.U.S.E and Yggdrasil coordinating the
>release of bundles and giving support and also Cygnus giving
>support (I think) this no longer should be a problem. IBM among
>others will also support Linux (on user request). IBM usually
>puts more effort into a new development than the originator. They
>have more people on Java than Sun and more people on NT than
>Microsoft.
>
>Could also be that IBM personel is extremely stupid... ;-)
>
>
>Groeten/Greetings,
>Jaap
>
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Simon - http://www.tefbbs.com/spacetime/index.htm