Hewlet Packard and Linux

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Charlie and all -

Your remarks about DOS are interesting - I was a DOS fan too and actually
never moved to Windows, except to support my Arkenstone Open Book Unbound
software. My machine is presently a dual boot machine so I can se Linux to
get work done or else at boot time select DOS (I use the Caldera
OpenDOS) to use my scanner software and one or two other legacy apps.

If you remember when DOS was introduced in the early 80s, version 1.X was
a lot like CP/M; as it was revised to 2.X and then 3.X, it gradually
became a lot more like Unix than CP/M, with a hierarchical file system,
batch files, and then later versions even had online help.

Now that should tell you something: namely, that Unix was a mature
standard for text consoles even in the early 80s when DOS was being forged
in Redmond. Linux of course is an Open Source and contemporary
implementation of Unix, and is therefore a decade ahead of the game
compared to DOS. 

Linux is also a fundamentally dual personality system, with its GUI being
a robust add-on to the underlying text based console system.

Linux was created as Open Source on the internet and is maintained and
developed there. It is a fundamental mistake to think of it in the same
market terms as the other major OS. Of course there is no market for Linux
accessibility solutions. But there are users and there is need, and that
need is being met by and large without benefit of market concepts.

How do people make a living in the Open Source world? By selling services,
not products. Products in the Open Source world are organic things. They
take root, they grow, they live or die on their merits, and they both give
to and take from their users. There would be no Speakup if it were
conceived on a marketing model of accessibility solutions,  trust me on
that one.

So - don't worry about Linux, it is in there for the long haul. 

I was recently tempted to spring for a preinstalled Linux system when I
last upgraded, but opted for the "rolling my own" solution. I am convinced
that if I had plunked down for a package deal I would have ended up
overhauling it anyway.

Will Linux ever be a mass market product suitable for the people who check
their email once a week and want their machine to do what they want, and
not what they say? Probably not. There may always be a niche for a
Windows-type OS with its closely guarded secrets and predatory practices,
with all the insides protected from meddling users and all the decision
details already made for them.

Best regards - and welcome to the list!

Chuck


Visit me at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh 
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