Subject: Re: Netscape for x86.
To: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@dsg.stanford.edu>
From: Scott Reynolds <scottr@Plexus.COM>
List: current-users
Date: 03/10/1995 08:51:28
On Thu, 9 Mar 1995, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> I'm getting really tired of the implicit assumption that
> NetBSD runs only on x86 machines. Please take this discussion
> somewhere where that assumption *is* valid.
Ah, silly me. Forgive me, I haven't gotten any caffeine to fuel my brain
yet this morning. I already run the hp300 port, and I hope to get the
mac68k port running again on a soon-to-be-acquired machine.
Regardless of this, it has been shown that Netscape runs perfectly well on
at least the i386 and sparc ports; it's also been pointed out that there
are *dozens* of other OS/architectures that *don't* have a port of
Netscape available. Obviously someone has targetted the systems that will
give the the highest exposure, and that certainly makes the hp340 running
downstairs a very unlikely target.
Let's face it; there are (unfortunately) more x86 machines out there than
anything else, whether they be running Windoze or Linux or *BSD. If you
want to complain to Netscape Communications, go ahead, but realize that
they're in business. Any economics instructor will tell you in a freshman
level course about diminishing returns, and that is quite probably the
reason why there aren't more ports to different systems.
That is all I have to say. Thank you for your consideration.
--scott