Re: FW: What goes where?
Re: FW: What goes where?
- Subject: Re: FW: What goes where?
- From: Randy Ford <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 12:19:09 -0600
On Sunday, March 2, 2003, at 07:25 AM, //aSaM// wrote:
But unix is hard, and X is one of the most obscure things about
unix. The only reason I can see for Apple devoting resources to
X-windows is because there a lot of people with unix workstations
on their desks who want to be able to do their work on a Mac now.
Those customers already know their way around unix; what they
need from Apple is better integrated X-windows support, and
that's what it looks to me like Apple is trying to deliver. I
think that's a good use of a finite resource, and I frankly see
no good reason for Apple to devote many of those resources to
hand-holding Mac users who delve into the unix side ill prepared.
Unix isn't going to stop having a steep learning curve just
because it comes in designer boxes --- if that were the case,
we'd all be using Irix.
I fall in that camp for sure and there is a simple reason,
Bioinformatics. That is the application of computers to the analysis
of biological data. We are just at the beginning of a revolution in
the medical, agricultural and chemical industries. The information we
have from projects like the human genome project is huge and to get it
all analysed and to crack the next problem, to be able to convert DNA
information to protein structure, is a huge worldwide effort, scales
of magnitude bigger then finding gene sequences.
I think there are also a vast number of "Unix users" who know nothing
about Unix. I know of a lot of people running Linux who can't use the
shell: they call people like me for anything they can't do with the
GUI. Probably more important, though, are the users in Corporate work
centers where they have a limited desktop on an X-Terminal that can
only access a few tools and the corporate apps. There are also many
people running X-Servers on PC to access the corporate apps. Apple
wants to replace the X-Terminals and PCs running X-Servers in these
environments.
Besides these reasons, Apple will want the common Linux tools to run
under Mac OS X. Being able to use applications like the gimp will be a
factor in deciding to by a Mac.
So, the bottom line: adding X11 to OS X will increase sales by taking
away customers from microsoft, Sun, HP, etc., resulting in more
revenues and more profits, which increases stock prices, which
increases bonuses to officers.
randy.
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