[aclug-L] Re: Lies, twisted words, and big balls

[Lars von dem Ast <mrprenzl@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Friday 09 November 2001 03:54 pm, you wrote:
> The scientific community has been essentially open source for decades, if
> not centuries.  I haven't heard anyone complaining that there are no
> scientific jobs available.
>
> As for his taking credit for providing a platform for open source, if
> memory serves it was IBM which produced the "millions and millions of
> machines" and they essentially "open sourced" the specs to boot!
>

Microsoft built its large developer base by making the price of developer 
admission very cheap. They had nothing to do with the hardware. They had/have 
the same problems as anyone with i386-ish machines: millions of little gotcha 
with all the mix-and-match parts.

However, ca. 1990, a cheap box, a copy of Petzhold's (sp?) Windows 
programming book, and a stolen copy of Borland would get you in the game, 
while Novell training cost many thousands, and Unix was just for the elite.

While in Seattle, I interviewed for a job at MS, and part of the interview 
was on a section of Petzhold I hadn't studied all that well. (Destiny, fate, 
where taketh me? To Kansas?! Aaaghh!!) 

I'm saying MS (and Borland) did give programming to the masses, and for that 
I thank them. It just took Linux/GNU/Open Source to truly deliver on the 
promise of universal admission.

-- 
Lb:Lars von dem Ast
"Soma addicts should not handle flags."
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