Subj : Re: Open Source Leaving Microsoft Sitting on the Fence? To : comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux From : steve_schefter Date : Fri Jul 23 2004 12:17 pm Harry Phillips wrote in message news:... > Peter Lu wrote: > > > > To be fair, both M$'s business and Open source have advantages and > > disadvantages. > > > > The only advantage Linux has is the amount of choices you get. > > Once you get over his stage you will be thankful there are so many tools > that you can combine in so many ways that you will wonder why you ever > stayed locked inside the MS box for so many years. That's not quite the point that Peter seemed to be making. He wasn't complaining that you could choose A versus B versus C to to fulfill requirement Z. Instead, he was complaining that A version 2 was incompatible with A version 1. And that A.redhat is quite different from A.suse. I quite agree with Peter's points. Fragmentation was a big detriment to PC Unix. Having to have a different release of your product for each brand of Unix made it less attractive to port a product to Unix at all. In terms of fragmentation, Linux doesn't seem to have faired much better so far. But now you have to add to that the fact that there is, IMHO, not enough attempt to maintain consistency within any one fragment. Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Schefter phone: +1 705 725 9999 x26 The Software Group Limited fax: +1 705 725 9666 642 Welham Road, Barrie, Ontario CANADA L4N 9A1 Web: www.wanware.com .