Why [not] X?

[David Gadbois]

   Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 16:24:00 -0700
   From: Mike McDonald <mikemac@titian.engr.sgi.com>

   Where's that browser running? If your machine is running a lisp
   based OS, I doubt Netscape is going to work too well. (Assuming
   only one machine. Having a second machine on the net just to run a
   C based browser is cheating!)

Cheating?  No way, it is just the kind of stealth marketing we need to
use!  No non-Lisp fanatic is going to give up their Windows until we
have compelling killer horizontal and vertical apps for them to use.
I don't doubt that will someday happen.  But it will be a lot easier
to build the necessary critical mass if we can hand the user some
floppies to stick in that old, dusty 386 sitting in a closet and have
it do some magic over the network.  We have the tools and the talent
to move any mountain, so why not bring it to the user?

Another windmill I'd like to tilt with is the stupid notion of "My
Computer," which mostly seems to be an excuse for per-seat licensing.
Why, oh why, in this day and age of cheap cycles and bandwidth do we
need to have a big, noisy, and expensive albatross of a machine
wrapped around our desktops?

--David Gadbois