Re: [OT] Gnat cross compiling FreeBSD to Win32 ?

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

An excellent article and one that makes some very valid points about the
current Open Source situation. The observation about Open Source distributed
development being a "Me Too" kind of thing is very important. It sees
something it likes and then it emulates it rather than looking at who the
customer is and what he wants and tries to *invent* something to satisfy the
need. Maybe Linux is successful because it provides a better/cheaper Unix,
but it doesn't exactly break open any vast undiscovered new territory.

The only dispute I might have with the article is that just because there
are weaknesses in the distributed, volunteer, open source development model
that lots of apps can't or won't appear for Linux. If Linux has a big enough
installed base, developers may be tempted to start porting apps to it.
(Linux doesn't execute Open Source apps only, right?) But I would agree that
until Linux can point to a really large base of apps that are simple to
install and use and satisfy the wide range of requirements people have, it
will have limited success in supplanting Windows.

This is an excellent example for anyone interested in producing an Ada
operating system. Its got to be "different". Its got to satisfy some
identifiable need. If it can't come out the door with a thousand apps on it,
then it needs to address some part of the market that doesn't need a
thousand apps. (How's that for getting back on topic? :-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Darren New" <dnew@san.rr.com> wrote in message
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