2) no, I do not believe screen-sharing Windows apps is superior to running
them locally (i.e. they both suck :-)
3) WINE is an emulation of a very restricted subset of Windows, essentially
only the gui calls. Win32 consists of *hundreds* more: COM, notification, file
system, security, network sharing, socket layer, mangement, printing, you name
it. It's the same overwhelming suite of added capabilities that ActiveX could
clobber Java with -- it's a race for apis far beneath the pixelated surface.
Just trying to visualize and untangle all the layers of MS APIs would be a
great exercise for a real-life Prime Radiant [see Asimov's Foundation].
4) The 85-15% rule is a theorem of Cringley's. There's no really compelling
evidence it will remain true. It is *possible* for a Windows world to win. The
competition may be non-computer-based: after all, personal computers may be
on the losing side of 85-15% vs. Nintendo-style game boxes.
Bzzzt. Go back and try a better analysis, Adamn... :-)
Rohit Khare
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 96 23:27:11 PDT
From: adam@cs.caltech.edu (I Find Karma)
To: FoRK@xent.w3.org
Subject: Re: OS/2's Death Rattle?
> Merlin is slated for release soon, as a competitor to NT4.0. There may
> be a battle about the better-underlying-OS-technology, but it's moot
> at the layer that counts: APIs, application support, and ubiquitous GUI.
On the other hand, if you believe in client-utility, then you can
choose whatever OS you most like. Rohit, OTOH, does not believe
in client-utility. Hence he knows for whom the bell tolls.
I had a curious thought today. WINE (the linux windows emulator) is
free, available, open, and closing in on Win32's API, right? Would it
be possible for them to overtake the API and then start making additions
of their own? If MacOS and OS/2 die, will the 15% be Linux and the 85%
be Win32? (With the 15% really being the 100% because of WINE?)
I am an antichrist.
And I am an anarchist.
Sex Pistols on Tour Summer '96.
Adam.