schwartz@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Scott Schwartz) (09/01/88)
Several posters have commented on the reasons for the apparent
dominance of X over NeWS. Several correctly pointed out that the
problem is that that NeWS doesn't have a very large user base, and
hence there is less pressure for developers to come through with new
ports/products. I think that the fundamental issue is this: NeWS is a
complicated system, it takes lots of programing effort just to make it
work at all. Look at how long it took sun to get 1.1 out. The next
release (2.0?) is still vaporware, as far as I know.
So what to do? The current plan seems to be: keep it under wraps and
just plug away on it. This at least means that Sun will maximize their
profits per NeWS licence sold. Of course, it means that they will not
necessarily sell very many licences. One alternative is to do like the
MIT/DEC gang did. Give (some of) the source away. Then you have tons
of people who are greatly inspired to contribute to the well being of
the product. Any incentive for Sun to do this? It would win respect
from programers, for one thing. It would probably lead to their
concept being widely supported; wouldn't it nice to originate a second
"de-facto" standard? Also, what's to loose? X is free and widely used
and is the de-facto standard now. You gotta do something drastic to
dislodge an incumbent, usually.
/suit { asbestos } def
-- Scott Schwartz schwartz@gondor.cs.psu.edu schwartz@psuvaxg.bitnet