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Message-ID: <36EC884F.865A55F1@netplus.net>
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 22:10:55 -0600
From: Steve Bergman <steve AT netplus DOT net>
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To: pgcc AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Kernel
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Reply-To: pgcc AT delorie DOT com

Marc Lehmann wrote:

> I do have problems, but each revision gets indeed better. Networking works
> again in 2.2.3 (imagine! ;), even when using pgcc.
> 
> PS: this whole thread is getting too long, we should cut it down to
> reasonable sizes (but I'm sure you think the same).

Well, I guess I'm contributing to the thread's duration, but this is an
important topic.  I've been thinking a lot lately about Unix and how
fragmentation has hurt it, and how one company was able to come in and take over
the desktop market because the Unix world was so fragmented it couldn't prevent
it.  And then about how a group of people no one had heard of, callaborating
over the internet, was able to come out of nowhere, eclipse the commercial Unix
vendors, and threaten said company.  How did they do it?  By avoiding the
fragmentation and conflict inherent in the commercial Unix world.  What could
send them down in flames?  Fragmentation and conflict.  

It doesn't matter who's fault it is;  Conflict erodes, and can ultimately
destroy, the futures of the beautiful things that have been built by all these
wonderful developers, and does it bit by bit by bit, almost invisibly, over
time, like water dripping upon rock.  The question is: How can everyone work
together with a minimum of friction?  Its impossible to avoid friction entirely,
but everyone who cares has a responsibility to keep in mind the damage that
friction inevitably causes.    

This is not a criticism of Marc or Linus.  It's a simple observation about how
really worthwile things can come to a premature end as the result of forces
which were really no one's fault.

Thanks for all the work that the pgcc, egcs, and other free/open-source software
people have contributed.


Sincerely,
Steve