http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0330/03afree.html
> Last month, CPT sent letters to six of the top PC makers, requesting
> that they offer customers a choice of operating systems.
I wonder how many people, given a CHOICE of operating systems, would
choose a non-Windows platform at this point (April 1998). One percent?
Two percent? Three percent?
Perhaps they'll discuss this at the Freeware Summit next week
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/press/freeware.html
It's pretty clear that whatever the number of nonWindows users will be,
it's sure to go up if Corel GPL's its Office Suite as slashdot suggested
a month ago
http://slashdot.org/articles/00000910.shtml
> Contributed by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 10, @10:10
> from the damn-fools-idealistic-crusade dept.
>
> Corel is Cutting Costs on software these days. Garrett sent us this
> note. Ready for a crazy idea? Corel is the best company to try GPLing
> (or NPLing) their office suite. Think about it: WP already has a unix
> port, so it has appeal to typical FSF junkies. The primary issue here is
> how Corel can make money- Netscape has revenue from Servers, but
> WordPerfect is a major cash cow. Hit the link below to read about the
> latest concept in my damn foolish idealistic crusade.
>
> The way I see it, Corel is losing market share fast, and they need a
> boost. GPLing their suite aligns them with the same audience that made
> Linux. This audience is growing into positions of purchasing power in
> many corporations. They need to release their suite- source code and
> all, but with a plug-in API and missing features (Thesaurus, Statistics
> Module, WordArt?) so that it was similiar in power to MS Works. The
> commercial version would essentially sell these modules to provide the
> remaining (less needed, but still important to business) features.
>
> Maybe instead of a plug-in API Corelcould only charges businesses.
> There has got to be a reasonable way to make a profit at this. Free or
> heavily discounted software for home and educational use should be a
> cornerstone of any company anyway. Autodesk did this with Autocad, Apple
> did it with the Mac, even MS does it. This gets your foot in the door
> with the students and computer geeks who go to work and buy software.
>
> I know there are other suites for Linux, but none of them are free,
> have available source, and have the ease of use and power that allows
> Corel a position similiar in the eyes of business to Microsoft Office.
> This would provide new users a good reason to use Linux, as well as
> promoting Corel. They would move tons of software- both on Unix (which
> needs a good word processor like I need beer) and Windows (A GPLd office
> suite is perfect for all those companies riding the anti microsoft wave
> that has recently become so publicized).
>
> So what do you guys think? I've seen plenty of Corel machines in my
> logs so somebody out there must have a connection.
Oh, by the way, here's the whole PC week article mentioned above:
> The next battleground: Linux vs. Windows?
> By Mary Jo Foley, Sm@rtReseller
>
> 04.03.98 9:50 am ET Commercial software is often rushed to market.
> Support is questionable. Would you consider freeware as an alternative?
>
> The increasingly vocal freeware community has championed Linux as a
> real, viable alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and NT for years.
> But the lack of a single, large backer has hampered the operating
> system's acceptance among many corporate customers, integrators and
> resellers.
>
> That dynamic may be changing, however, in large part thanks to
> Netscape Communications Corp., which officially joined the freeware camp
> as of this week by putting its Communicator 5.0 source code into the
> public domain.
>
> Netscape's Executive Vice President of Products Marc Andreessen, who
> spoke earlier this week at the Silicon Valley Linux Users Group meeting,
> went on record espousing the potential market benefits of a Communicator
> plus Linux combination. Andreessen also reportedly committed to making
> Linux a reference platform equal in stature to Windows for future
> Netscape product releases.
>
> Netscape's move couldn't have come at a better time for the freeware
> community. Next week, some of the leading voices in the freeware
> movement are slated to hold the first-ever Freeware Summit
> in Palo Alto, Calif. Representatives affiliated with Mozilla.org (the
> Netscape freeware arm), Apache, Linux, Perl, Python and Sendmail,
> among others, are slated to meet to discuss strategies for increasing
> public acceptance of their wares at the conference, which is being
> hosted by freeware advocates O'Reilly & Associates.
>
> The freeware community is also gaining additional backing from some
> unlikely places.
>
> "A year ago, Linux was seen as too much out of the mainstream. The
> lack of a single backer has hampered it getting a lot of notice. But now
> it's looking more interesting," said Jamie Love, director of Ralph
> Nader's Consumer Project on Technology.
>
> Last month, CPT sent letters to six of the top PC makers, requesting
> that they offer customers a choice of operating systems. CPT suggested
> Linux, BeOS and Apple Computer Inc.'s Rhapsody as possible alternatives
> to Windows that companies such as Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer
> Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Micron
> Electronics Inc. could offer.
>
> Love said Nader's organization is testing a number of Linux flavors on
> different machines at its own offices.
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
In today's automated labs, drug researchers can produce thousands of
compounds that promise relief for various diseases. But about 98%
eventually fail due to toxicity, high production costs, or
ineffectiveness in human trials. So the challenge is to determine which
candidates are in the other 2%.
-- BusinessWeek, March 23, 1998, page 89