Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!amdahl!dacseg From: dacseg@uts.amdahl.com (Scott E. Garfinkle) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: Xview vs. Motif speculation; Re: Free Motif Message-ID: Date: 14 Apr 90 16:29:40 GMT References: <1210031@hpfcmgw.HP.COM> Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 27 From article <1210031@hpfcmgw.HP.COM>, by chan@hpfcmgw.HP.COM (Chan Benson): >> I'm not for everything being freely available, but programmer's >> toolkits that support an interface that you're trying to make a >> standard so that people will buy your product over someone else's (ie >> Motif for OSF/1 vs Open Look for Sun/AT&T) are probably a good idea to >> write off (ie give away for free). > > Hmmmm. Why does the phrase "trying to make a standard so that people will > buy your product over someone else's" strike me as rather absurd? It may not be the most elegant possible English, but the sentiment is right on target. I find it hard to believe that the committment by various companies to all kinds of competinging "open" "standards" (two distinct buzz-words) is in any way altruistic. OSF (including HP) wants Motif to succeed so that the members can sell more of their frammistans (widgets? :-)). > Let's see, how freely available was SunView source? What Unix windowing > system probably supports the largest number of applications? A useless comparison. Sun did not *need* to give away source. Sunview is only popular on Suns; ic it's "the most popular", it only because there are a lot of suns around. I, personally, would be happy to be using Motif on my 386 Unix boxes; however, I will continue to use Athena Widgets until I get a decent generally-available toolkit. It looks to me like openlook will probably get there first. -Scott E. Garfinkle Disclaimer: I not only don't speak for Amdahl, I don't even work for them.