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000008_kb@cs.umb.edu_Wed Nov 2 00:59:22 1994.msg
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Received: from terminus.cs.umb.edu by cs.umb.edu with SMTP id AA06930
(5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for <tex-k-exp@cs.umb.edu>); Wed, 2 Nov 1994 05:59:54 -0500
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Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 05:59:22 -0500
From: "K. Berry" <kb@cs.umb.edu>
Message-Id: <199411021059.AA11079@terminus.cs.umb.edu>
To: walt@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca
Cc: tex-k@cs.umb.edu
Subject: microsoft and patents
ps Karl. I'd like to hear more about "...another story.." i.e., regarding
your quote in the beginning of the kpathsea doc:
"....assuming Microsoft hasn't completely obliterated UNIX ..."
What do you mean? I find this possibility disturbing.
You're not alone!
The U.S. government is -- I hear -- bringing (or maybe it's just
``thinking of bringing'') an antitrust suit against Microsoft.
If you consider the relative number of people using Unix, vs. the number
of people using DOS and Windows and NT, it's not totally unreasonable. I
heard Windows 3.1 was selling a million copies a *month* at one point.
Don't know if it's true.
Anyway, Microsoft not only sells the operating systems, but also sells
lots of the most popular and useful applications. You and I might not
like it, but there it is. Linux is cheaper even than DOS, but it's not
going to make any inroads unless and until there is a distribution that
is as reliable and stable as DOS is. I am tempted to try to do such a
thing myself.
I heard a story about Bill Gates from someone who was at a conference
for him. There are two parts -- one good, one bad. The good part: some
other MS people, not Gates, were giving some talk. During the Q&A
afterwards, there were some technical questions about the coding or
algorithms or some such. The people giving the talk couldn't answer them
(``we'll have to check into that with the programmers'')
-- but Gates could. Which is pretty amazing.
The bad part: someone asked Gates about why NT was the way it was. (For
those of you fortunate enough not to have encountered NT, it's kind of
Windows interface onto a Unix box -- multiple processes, but multiple
users aren't really supported, and the API's are full of typical
incompletely and undocumented DOS crap.) He said that his approach was
to let other people do the R&D, and then if it looked some idea (Unix,
in this case), was catching on, he took the work, made the cheapest
imitation he could get away with, and marketed the hell out of it. That
his goal was not to make a good operating system; it was to make money.
All I can say is that the world will not be a better place for Bill Gates.
Also, how do the various software patents emerging effect people *not* living
in the US( in my case CANADA)?
How much of the software that you use originates from the United States?
Also, software patents were written into the GATT treaty, I
believe. Thus, all countries that are signatories to the GATT will have
to honor them. I don't know when or if the GATT will become law; in the
hands of the individual countries' legislatures now, I think. At least
it is here.