124 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
124 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>LG #25</title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H2>The Software World--It's a Changin'</H2>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:phil@ssc.com">Phil Hughes</a></H4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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First, let me set the scene: today is January 22.
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The important events of this day are:
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<ul>
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<li>Bill Clinton is once again accused of a sexual impropriety.
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<li>The Pope is in Cuba.
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<li>Netscape has announced that that their browser is now free and that
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they will freely distribute the source code for it.
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<li>Microsoft has somewhat folded in its browser battle with the U.S. Justice
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Department.
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</ul>
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The first two items are just for context--it has been an exciting day.
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I am really here to discuss the last two items.
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<p>
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Let's get the Microsoft information out of the way first.
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My understanding is that a compromise has been reached between Microsoft
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and the justice department--the Internet Explorer icon
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will not appear on the desktop, but the browser itself will still be
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included.
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As the easiest way to get a new browser is to download it off the Internet
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and 90% of all personal computers today come with Microsoft Windows, it
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seems that all we have done is make it a little harder for Internet Explorer to
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be on 90% of the desktops.
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Hopefully, there will be further developments in the Microsoft vs. the U.S. Justice
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Department game.
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<p>
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The Netscape item has two parts.
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The first, making the browser available for free really is a
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necessity;
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90% of new personal computers come with Windows and, thus, Internet
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Explorer.
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Whether IE is better than anything Netscape offers or not isn't the
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issue if one comes with your computer and you have to go buy and
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install the other one.
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Numbers back up this statement.
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Netscape used to account for about 90% of the browser market while 60%
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is probably the case today.
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<p>
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The good news for Netscape is that they have managed to shift their
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revenue stream away from stand-alone client software.
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Their own numbers show that in the fourth quarter of 1997 these
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revenues were only 13% of total, down from 45% a year earlier.
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<p>
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By far the most interesting part of Netscape's announcement for the
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Linux community is the fact they will
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release the source code for Communicator starting with 5.0.
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Sure, this will also make a change for them in the Windows arena and
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may force Microsoft to make some brave decision as well, but let's look
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at what this does for the Linux community.
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<p>
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The first thing I see is talk on the Gnome mailing list about a version of
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Navigator using Gnome.
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Call it Gnomescape, it is potentially a full-featured browser with a
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look and feel that is likely to become the Linux standard. [For more on
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Gnome see the "KDE and Gnome" article by Larry Ayers in issue
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24 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> January 1998.]
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<p>
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Netscape claims they are releasing the code to allow the Internet
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community to contribute to the development.
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(I expect Linux helped them realize that is possible.)
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For us, this can mean that instead of complaining about Netscape bugs, we
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can fix them.
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I expect, based on Linux history, the best, most bug-free version of
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Netscape will appear on Linux systems first.
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<p>
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Free Communicator and free source code means that Linux systems become
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a much cheaper choice for "Web Appliances".
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It also means inexpensive kiosks at shopping malls, car dealers, etc.
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While I am sure Netscape made this decision to help their competitive
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position with Microsoft, I think we will see a huge impact on the
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Linux scene.
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Of course, if Linux replaces Windows as the operating system installed
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on 90% of the PCs sold today, Netscape will be as happy as the Linux
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community.
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<p>
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What's still up in the air is what sort of license the source code
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will fall under.
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GPL is one choice; a license more like that of BSD is another.
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Check out "Linux News" and the discussion groups on our
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/">web site</A> to get up to the
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minute information on what is happening.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Phil Hughes <BR>
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Published in Issue 25 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, February 1998</H5></center>
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