> Actually, I suspect that backward compatibility will be one of the
> major things that cripples MS, and one of the reasons Linux has failed
> so miserably to be the contender. When consumers start realizing that
> small smart $20 products can accomplish their needs without the great
> edifice of MS-DOS 7.1 (aka Windows 98) or the outrageuously bloated
> X/Motif, or the process overhead of Unix, the limited application base
> of new systems will matter less and less.
Why you say Linux has failed?
It grows quite fast.
>From http://www.redhat.com/redhat/linuxmarket.html
>end of 1993 100,000
>1994 500,000
>1995 1,500,000
>1996 3,000,000 to 5,000,000
There is project underway that is going to allow alternatives to X:
http://synergy.foo.net/~ggi/
>From http://synergy.foo.net/~ggi/docs/faq.html
>Just about any sort of API or GUI can be written to use the GGI. A
>GGI-using X server, for example, would have its own set of dynamic
>userspace libraries specifically optimized for X. All X programs
>continue to run without any changes, but at the same time they
>(through the GGI-optimized X server) enjoy the advantages of GGI.
I would like to call free software market really free and
unrestrained. Different projects can use each others ideas and even
use code freely even if they are competing (ideas:Linux/FreeBSD, ideas
and code:Gnome/KDE).
-- LM lm+signature@sip.fi