[Am-info] query about MS "Innovations"

[Eric M. Hopper]

On Fri, 2002-04-05 at 17:27, Felmon Davis wrote:
> Perhaps your last question was overlooked? It's a worrisome thought: 
> why exactly wouldn't 'open source' _also_ produce a 'mono-culture'?

There are a few reasons why this probably won't happen.

While many people run the same OS, most people have different personal
choices about which applications they use for things.  There are no
email clients in the Open Source world that get used by even 80% of
people.  In the most major areas of functionality, each area has at
least two projects targeting it.

Also, the pressure to upgrade to the exact same version as other people
just isn't there.

Lastly, most cracks and exploits depend intimately on low level details
of how programs run inside.  If you compile a package from source, you
are likely to have a somewhat different layout of the data inside your
copy of the package than someone else's.  Distributions like Red Hat
encourage people not to compile their own sources, but no distribution
has an iron grip on the world, or is likely to develop one.

Have fun (if at all possible),
-- 
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed.  -- Alexander Hamilton
-- Eric Hopper (hopper@omnifarious.org 
http://www.omnifarious.org/~hopper) --