[Oberon] PC Makers Hit Speed Bumps - Oberon opportunity

[eas-lab at absamail.co.za]

On Thu, Oct 03, 2002 at 07:02:57PM +0200, eas-lab at absamail.co.za wrote:

> > For us, linux is important:
> > *  to see how dispersed collaboration can/can't work,
> > * possibly copy some of it's openly available algorithms/ideas,
> > * coming later has the advantage: we can also learn what NOT to do.

Frank wrote:
> I think you will find that your idea of who came later is mistaken.

Yes I realised this as I wrote it.
I'm thinking of who 'trod the path first'.
Consider the space of possibilities, covered by a wondering path.
Since linux has perhaps one thousand 'explorers' for every one
that oberon has.   They will have covered nearly all possibilities
before oberon.    Thank you linux explorers. 

> The Oberon project dates from the 1980s; "Project Oberon" places it in
> the years 1986-1989. "Project Oberon" itself was published in 1992.
> The Oberon-2 language report is dated 1993.
> 
> The initial public release of the linux kernel was in late 1991.
> According to
> <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/chapter/ch01_02.html> the
> first really usable linux OS dates from 1992, a good 3-5 years after the
> Oberon System became a practical OS. However, if you count the
> publication of "Project Oberon" as the public release of Oberon, then
> they are pretty much contemporaries.
> 
> Oberon started as an academic research project and after 15 years
> that's pretty much what it still is. Linux started off as a student's
> hobby project and after 10 years it is now a serious competitor to
> every other major OS.

Apparently this supports my contention that a formal approach is best.
I don't agree with the conclusion of "the bazaar vs. the cathederal."

> So who do you think has worked out what NOT to do?

By definition, the one that has travelled the most of the path, would
be the first to know what NOT to do.  Except that their commitment
often prevents them from backtracking.   The outside observer who has 
not yet 'gone down that route' has great advantage in observing the
fore-runners mistakes.

Yes, if you put microsoft in the sample of 3, then the popularity is 
consistently inversely related to the 'value'.  
Which says much about human nature.

-- Chris Glur.