so, just because someone offers something for free, everyone else should
throw in the towel or give it away too?
I guess I may be cynical, but if everything was free, a lot of what we now
have would not be available as not everyone is motivated simply to have
their name in lights as the author of a freeware/shareware product - that
doesn't put food on the table or gas in the car or electricity to run the
PC...
Personally, instead of taking sides on Linux versus Unix or NT, I take a lot
higher ground - I'm totally disappointed by the free software movement. To
date, it has entirely been focused on "hate" efforts to create clones of
existing commercial products to give away rather than any true innovation.
In my view, the free software/group development guys should try to do
something innovative. For example, since they aren't commercial, they can
ignore the real-world challenges of backward compatibility that constrains
so much.
More specifics: how about a "next gen" OS rather than a unix clone? For
example, an OS that has completely dynamic, self-configuring device drivers,
no need to manually reconfigure/reboot, completely invisible networking
without all the arcane TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP stuff visible and confusing to the
user, etc. etc.
Why stop at software? why not propose a "freeware" hardware spec. I've
brainstormed a few times about a hardware architecture where each peripheral
(disk, cd, audio, scanner) was required to have flash memory and a driver in
the device itself. why can't I hook up a scanner and have the driver
ALREADY resident in firmware in the scanner? Or, once I "load a driver",
wouldn't it be great if it STAYED with the DEVICE so when I unhook the
scanner and hook it up to another PC, the driver is already there and
automatically runs?
just a few random ramblings....
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Robert Everland
III
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 10:30 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] templates
See thing is with this with Microsoft. I downloaded a copy of Linux and on
their site they said why they can give away their software. They said that
building software isn't like building a car. You don't have to buy any
parts, you make it one time and you can distribute it as many times as you
want. So they charge 700 dollars for Microsoft Office 2000. What's up with
that. You know programmers at the most get paid 100,000. They are expecting
to sell millions of copies of it. What is right in that. The only reason
they make free software is if it is for their advantage. IE is free to
bundle with windows. Star Office is free to further try to get rid of the PC
in Sun's thin client computer idea. Programming is hard I will admit that,
you have to have a knack for it, but when you start charging that much for
software how can you justify it when people are giving the equivalent away.
Robert Everland III
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Vaughn Thurman
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 12:05 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] templates
You know whenever you put this stuff in context Microsoft doesn't seem so
bad...
Sun is now giving away a new MSOffice competitive product called Star
Office. It seems like it has a lot of potential and reads/writes all the MS
files (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.) but you want to talk about Dr.
Watson!!! Microsoft, as big and scary as they are, is so big because they
keep improving everything they do and building in a lot of value. I would
rather they win. Do you want to pay for your browser? If so please send
Netscape a check when you download any browser, OK?
:-)
-V
----- Original Message -----
From: Roger Heath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 9:57 PM
Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] templates
> msg status: reply from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Roger Heath)
> author: by Michael Borman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> composed: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:37:51 -0700 it was stated:
>
> >And Wasn't NetScape Navigator copyrighted too, before Microsoft ripped
that off and gave it away for free?
> >
>
> Netscape was based on free Mosaic financed by our tax dollars and was
> originally free from right here in Illinois. It was Netscape that
> started charging for it and made millions from it. Microsoft made it
> free again..
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Robert Spivack [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> >Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 5:02 PM
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] templates
> >
> >Folks, I'm not a legal expert, but I suspect that the "(c) 1999
Microsoft" on all the HotMail webpages actually means something.
> >
> >I.E. you can't just rip-off their visual layout for yourselves....
>
> I agree. I looked at this site and you cannot just post Hotmail pages
> as your IMail server pages. I have over 38 patents and have been
> deeply involved in intellectual property for many many years.
> Microsoft could have this site closed very easily. There don't appear
> to be any pages changed after downloading them directly from Hotmail,
> logos and all..
>
>
> --
> bcnu
> www.rleeheath.com
> Roger Heath [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> advanced internet services and software technology
> advanced concepts in emergency medical technology
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