Re: Darwin Continues Open Source Evolution

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From: Tony Finch (dot@dotat.at)
Date: Tue Dec 12 2000 - 00:57:35 PST


Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de wrote:
>
>Apple is dead, and has been dead for a while (arguably, since the 128
>k Mac).

Also crap. At the time of the 128K Mac they weren't even getting
started. It was the LaserWriter which gave them the serious boost,
turning their machines from toys and teaching machines into serious
tools. You can't date their peak until after that.

>Lisa and the first Mac was innovation (ahem: an inferior
>consumer copy of what Xerox PARC did earlier).

You speak as if Xerox were capable of doing something worthwhile with
their technology. Ahaha.

>The only technological innovation (hardware) currently happening is in
>game consoles.

I think that peripherals are complicated enough nowadays that you
can't entirely discount them from the arena of hardware innovation.

You can't expect radical new hardware architecture on a platform as
standardized as the PC, and in fact you don't want innovation to take
place in the PC world: instead you should prefer to get designs that
have been tried out in a few other contexts already.

>The only worthwhile technological innovation (software) is
>OpenSource, even though the architecture still sucks (compare QNX).

Also crap. OSS is just re-implementing ideas that have already been
worked out elsewhere. I'd be really interested to know of good
counter-examples. And why do you name QNX as the epitome of good
architecture? I'd cite NetBSD.

>(Ok, I'll grant them that their cases are typically easy to open).

The same is true for most brand-name PCs. Generic cases IME are
utterly shit and far more expensive than their price tag would
suggest.

Tony.

-- 
f.a.n.finch    fanf@covalent.net    dot@dotat.at
"There are flying saucers. There's no doubt they are
in our skies. They've been there for some time."


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