Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!know!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!unify!dgh From: dgh@Unify.Com (David Harrington) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: What's what in OPEN LOOK/OpenWindows (long) Message-ID: Date: 19 Oct 90 16:12:51 GMT References: <1776@riscy.enet.dec.com> <9010161109.AA02249@zardoz.noname> <1990Oct16.185848.2617@odin.corp.sgi.com> Organization: Unify Corporation, Sacramento, CA, USA Lines: 45 In article <1990Oct16.185848.2617@odin.corp.sgi.com> cook@sgi.com (Doug Cook) writes: >In article <9010161109.AA02249@zardoz.noname> don@zardoz.coral.COM (Don Dewar) writes: >>Let me couch my last request so there are no misunderstandings. I >>believe it will be the market that sets the defacto standard UI >>in the UNIX arena. But it will be the software marketplace, not the >>hardware marketplace that renders the final decision. Everyone who is >>trying to make predictions at this point is still trying to figure >>out who is going to win the superbowl on the first day of the season. > >I disagree. Motif was being pushed as "the standard" well before it >was even released; there were people committed to use it practically before >they saw it. There's far more politics than market decision going on here. >If it is a Super Bowl, it's a Super Bowl of lemmings; you *can* predict what >will happen to all of them from observing the first one jump off the cliff. I agree. I have always thought that the main two reasons you see workstation vendors like DG, Concurrent, Motorola, etc (*not* your biggies!) choose Motif are: 1. Motif is easily licensed from OSF, *and* it's cheap. (Isn't that what OSF stands for? Our Software's Free? Aren't they in business to provide cheap software for the iron pushers? Have I started another (flame) thread here?) 2. Motif "style" is more flexible than Open Look, thus allowing the hardware vendors to offer, to a certain extent, their own unique look and feel using a "standard" toolkit. > >Make no mistake; I'm not saying anything at all about which toolkit I >think people should be using. I just don't think that the "market" is what >is deciding things, at least to a large degree. > > -Doug > >Doug Cook | My opinions do not necessarily >Video Group, Advanced Systems Division | reflect those of my employer. >Silicon Graphics, Inc. | >Mountain View, CA | -- David Harrington internet: dgh@eire.unify.COM Unify Corporation ...!{csusac,pyramid}!unify!eire!dgh 3870 Rosin Court voice: (916) 920-9092 Sacramento, CA 95834 fax: (916) 921-5340