Re: Free Lunches (was: OUTREACH 101)

Eugene Leitl (eugene@liposome.genebee.msu.su)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 18:41:04 +0300 (MSK)


On Tue, 16 Dec 1997, Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin wrote:

> The cost of Linux is as high as the cost of any other OS of similar
> complexity, power, and robustness: extremely high.

True. But I consider its complexity (it is admittedly a powerful, not a
pointless complexity) a handicap. It has to be complex to be able to deal
with barnacle-encrusted mainframe heritage. I'd like OS kernels to have
10, not 100 kBytes. It is software which constraints hardware, today.

> But many people have VOLUNTEERED to pay it on behalf of everyone,
> without any compensation other than the fact that others VOLUNTEER
> likewise and thus the cost to any one volunteer is acceptably low.

Everybody has won: Life's not a zero-sum game. (Ok, maybe billge@ has lost
a tiny bit, but he surely can afford it).

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