From: jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov () Subject: Re: What would people think of binary-only software on Linux? Date: 2 Mar 1993 14:20:31 GMT
In article <C34o1y.2y5@ukelele.GCR.COM> tmcwill@ukelele.GCR.COM (Thomas McWilliams) writes:
>
>
> dfenyes@thesis1.med.uth.tmc.edu (David Fenyes) writes:
>
>> That's silly. Some may use the best thing available for the
>> price. Linux falls in that category. Wordperfect for $200
>> would fit that category for a WP devotee, as would SigmaPlot
>> for $500. I was perfectly willing to pay $75 for a binary
>> only distribution of 4-DOS when I used DOS, and I'd pay
>> reasonable prices for a binary of WordPerfect, SigmaPlot, etc.
>
>YOU are using the WRONG operating system. Please run to
>ftp-os2.nmsu.edu and FTP your free version of OS/2. Yes it is
>free and legal. Then you can happily run SmegmaPlot and all of
>your MS_DOS apps. Though if your checkbook is so open, why not
>just pop the 90 bucks for the retail version? Hundreds of
>vendors will happily sell you applications without source code.
>You can even get an OS/2 version of your 4-DOS. Won't that be dandy?
>After you get your free version of OS/2, please take the time
>to unsubscribe to comp.os.linux. Be happy, and enjoy life.
>
>Thomas
Thomas,
Chill out...your flame was *totally* uncalled for...try thinking
a little bit first. Linux is an excellent product, but whats the
purpose? Is it supposed to be just a toy that a bunch of hackers can
play with? I don't think so. Many people are turning to Linux and
386BSD because they are tired of paying for the limitations of DOS,
or tired of the outrageous prices charged for 386/486 UNIX. Many of
these people actually *use* their Linux machines to get some work done
and need certain tools to do this...unfortunately some of these tools
are not available in the public domain, such as FrameMaker, IDL,
Mathematica to name a few. It would be *nice* if they were available
via P.D. but until then many would be willing to settle for a
shrink-wrapped version that works under Linux...If this were
to occur, Linux *could* start pulling people away from the commercial
version of UNIX, and therefore have a great impact on the pricing
structure of the commercial UNIX distributions, to the benifit of
*all* UNIX programmers...
Another alternative is to move Linux toward binary compatibility with
one of the commercial versions of UNIX, so that products available
for that platform would work on Linux...
Think...
John
jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov