From:	"Ubiratan P. Alberton" <ubiratan@**.HOMESHOPPING.COM.BR>
Subject:	Re: "Free" Software (was: Euro question)
Date:	Fri, 1 May 1998 16:54:02 -0300

Jeremy "Bolthy" Zimmerman escreveu:
>
> ----------
> > From: Lehlan Decker <decker@****.FSU.EDU>
> > To: SHADOWRN@********.ITRIBE.NET
> > Subject: Re: "Free" Software (was: Euro question)
> > Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 11:21 AM
> >
> > Guys the problem also is that a free product, doesn't have the
> > same investments behind it, because there's little to no money
> > being made. I love linux (and no my x-windows, doesn't look like Win95:))
> > but I still have to have a copy of Win95 for games, and MS Office.
> > Linux has come a long way (although their NFS support still needs some
> > work), but its not the same. I haven't seen anyone writing huge mass
> > market games for it, etc. Free software is wonderful, and it provides
> > a challenge to the megas, but it would most likely always be seen
> > in the hands of the "intellectuals" who liked to fiddle with their
> > OS, didn't mind things breaking, or writing it themselves. The masses
> > want somebody to call when it breaks, and to be able to wonder
> > down the store and by their programs. I don't see this changing even
> > by 2050. This is all IMHO of course.
> >
>
> So in the end you have the deckers running their own OSs on their
> computers, and the standard users running some mass-marketed crap?
>
> Sounds about right.


I prefer the other theory of the "unified OS" that came after the
Crash, but with
some twists: The base code for all systems is the same (ASIST), with
each corp adding
it's own "twist" to the system it makes in 2059. Mostly cosmetic
changes, because everybody
else will still use ASIST and major changes create incompatibility.
ASIST would be
currently in version 7.0, because it's the 7th generation of decks now.

Ubiratan