🚀 go-pugleaf

In <nevin-1902962146250001@150.135.1.79> nevin@CS.Arizona.EDU (Nevin ":-]" Liber) writes:

>Apple has been trying to maintain binary compatibility for all these
>years.  Last I checked, Linux on an x86 won't run Solaris SPARC binaries. 
>To paraphrase you Dan:  if this was possible (so easily) with MacOS, why
>do you think it would be so difficult with software written by all the
>Unix vendor's professional programmers.  (Hint:  it was never a goal of
>Unix to be binary compatible.)

Hint: Linux can run SCO and MSDOS binaries.  Why SCO?  Because SCO binaries
are compliant with a standard for x86 binaries.

>> Windows users had the choice between at least a dozen of OS's with PMT.
>
>And the ones that won out were the ones w/o it.  Just goes to show you how
>unimportant it is to most people.

Most people run one application at a time (no matter the platform).
Most people don't mind about their systems crashing all the time.
Conclusion: stability and multitasking aren't key factors in the fight
for the mass market.  Marketing muscle is all it matters and this is why
Microsoft won.  However, I couldn't care less about the mass market:
stability and solid multitasking are essential to me.  Mouse cursors
which turn into an hourglass or watch (while the system is frozen) aren't.

>> The PMac users had MacOS as their only option.  Can you see
>> the difference?
>
>I don't really care.  I don't buy a computer to run an OS; I buy it to run
>(and for me, to develop) applications.

And you don't mind when a bug in the application you're developing is
crashing the system, right?  Oh, I forgot, you're God and your applications
are bug-free as soon as you type their source code.

>> Apple programmers didn't try very hard to get their software right.
>
>Bullshit, Dan.  Unlike Linux, Apple has real deadlines to meet when they
>ship products. 

Best joke of the week.  How many months is Copland late?

>Deciding what to work on is what you have to do when you
>make engineering tradeoffs.  Otherwise, you have a product that is never
>quite ready for other people to use.

Again, Copland springs to mind as the best example.

Dan
--
Dan Pop
CERN, CN Division
Email: danpop@mail.cern.ch 
Mail:  CERN - PPE, Bat. 31 R-004, CH-1211 Geneve 23, Switzerland