Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!psuvax1!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!ninja!sys1!hal6000!trsvax!johnm
From: johnm@trsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: OS/2 Anyone?
Message-ID: <216100041@trsvax>
Date: 16 Jun 88 18:17:00 GMT
References: <1866@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Lines: 34
Nf-ID: #R:ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:1866:trsvax:216100041:000:1797
Nf-From: trsvax.UUCP!johnm    Jun 16 13:17:00 1988


/* Written 11:09 am  Jun 13, 1988 by mjbtn.UUCP!root in trsvax:comp.sys.ibm.pc */
In article <575@hscfvax.harvard.edu>, pavlov@hscfvax.harvard.edu (G.Pavlov) writes:
>> 
>>- likewise, we will never see a significant amount of free software for VAXen,
>>  SUN, Xenix, et. al....... 
>>
>
>Well, what do you call the megabytes of unix sources in unix.sources, 
>misc.sources, alt.sources, pubnet.sources, etc.?  While some are not 
>targeted for Xenix, etc., a large number can be compiled on Xenix (my
>case) and many are top quality, useful tools.  This is a PC group, so
>may be you are unaware of the vast archives on sites like killer and
>sir-alan.  Of course, these are sources not binaries is that is what 
>you are referring to.

I believe that he was being sarcastic when he made the statement and you took
it literally.  He was trying to point out that there is a lot of free software
for machines so expensive that no one individual (typically) can own one.

I stand behind my original claim that there will be a dearth of software for
OS/2 because I'm not just looking at the quantity of software but the type as
well.  Things like BBS's, editors, and most games are written by the weekend
hackers and are not things that come up in the course of ordinary development.
I believe that if you look back over the programs that have come through
comp.sources.unix you will find an incredible preponderance (sp?) of development
tools, i.e. much less variety than the free software for the PC's today.  When
the machines are that expensive nobody is going to be writing the a comic book
cataloger for it because they can't afford to have one at home.

Maybe there will be as much software for OS/2 but it will probably be the tools
we use to build things, not the applications.

John Munsch