Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!uunet!intercon!news From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: comp.windows.news Subject: Re: sun's commitment to NeWS Message-ID: <1990Mar12.212039.13200@intercon.com> Date: 12 Mar 90 21:20:39 GMT References: <9003071155.AA05836@aida.canon.co.uk> <10762@hoptoad.uucp> Sender: gaige@intercon.com (Gaige B. Paulsen) Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Sterling, VA Lines: 54 In article <10762@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes: > I'm glad that people believe James Gosling about NeWS more than they > believe me. Well, I don't want to get in the middle of an argument between two people I respect quite a bit, but I would say that James inches you out this time, John. In particular: - James is still working for Sun. I don't know much about the internal politics involved, but I've been following SunDEW -> NeWS -> OpenWindows progress from the outside, and of everyone who has worked on it, James is the one who has been there from the start. If he's just blowing hot air and Sun isn't doing anything, then he (and Sun) are about to lose one of a lot of their credibility. James now has a lot on the line, and he seems like enough of a realist not to do that unless there's something behind him to back it up. His posting was a lot stronger than just being enthusiastic at a windowing conference... > The "old" NeWS team has disintegrated. There may be a "new" NeWS team... That may not be all bad--I don't know enough to speculate. > I agree with this characterization; James is tops on my list. The problem > is that he's been fooled before with Sun's promises, level of committment, > and simply how much work it is to get from here to there. The same was true with X11, and it's still alive... :-). This need not be fatal unless you bet all of your assets on someone else's project. > Even if Sun has a high level of committment to NeWS, I can't see it as > a viable window system unless they take it non-proprietary. For that matter, Sun doesn't even have to be the company that does so. C-script isn't the only PostScript interpreter out there; adding the new data types and lightweight processes would not be at all impossible for a good Lisp programmer; since all of NeWS's extra primitives are quite low level, the basic technology is quite accessible to anyone who wants to compete. It's certainly of similar scale to stuff GNU is sponsoring... > Even as a free product > it will be an uphill battle since the marketing war is already lost. (I don't like the war metaphor, but...) battles can turn, too. I wouldn't call this one over unless Sun actually gives up, but it seems that the rumors to that effect were somewhat exaggerated. We'll all get to find out, though... :-). -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our own point of view." --Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Return of the Jedi"