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	Sat, 20 Feb 1999 12:46:12 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 12:46:12 -0500
From: Mason Loring Bliss <mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us>
To: Frank Warren <clovis@home.com>
Cc: davidw@debian.org, netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: NetBSD/Linux 'distribution'
Message-ID: <19990220124612.A11361@acheron.middleboro.ma.us>
References: <19990219211709.A25512@debian.org> <36CE58E0.372BA6D0@home.com>
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In-Reply-To: <36CE58E0.372BA6D0@home.com>; from Frank Warren on Fri, Feb 19, 1999 at 10:40:32PM -0800

On Fri, Feb 19, 1999 at 10:40:32PM -0800, Frank Warren wrote:

> It's not hardware support, but "stuff," that put Windows where it is
> today.  With lots of "stuff" and a competitive hardware market, Microsoft
> rolled into dominance easily.

Hm. While Debian is IMHO the nicest GNU/Linux distribution out there, "stuff"
comes from individuals and small projects. Debian does an admirable job of
providing "stuff" with their distribution, but that "stuff" is already out
there, and simply needs to be crammed into the NetBSD package system for us
to take advantage of it. (I'm negligent in this area at the moment, as I'd
probably do well porting stuff and adding it to the package system, but re-
medying this is one of my two current projects.)

> I have no luck getting "stuff" to run on NetBSD, and am still not sure why
> I can't get emacs to work on NetBSD 1.3.2

Odd. If you'd care to describe what's happening here off the list, or on a
more appropriate list, I'd be glad to try to help.

> If we want to be popular, we will have to learn that most users aren't
> UNIX hacks and don't want to be.

Do we want NetBSD to occupy Windows' place in the world? My opinion on this
has changed drastically. What I want, now, is for NetBSD to remain viable
and current technologically, and for it to remain focussed on technical
correctness and machine independence. It doesn't have to be popular - it
simply has to remain viable *enough* that people who like it aren't drawn
off to other projects. A slow growth pattern would of course be nice as well.

-- 
Mason Loring Bliss             ((  "In the drowsy dark cave of the mind dreams
mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us  ))  build  their nest  with fragments  dropped
http://acheron.ne.mediaone.net ((   from day's caravan." - Rabindranath Tagore