FreeSWAN & unnatural monopolies

[Jim Choate]

On Mon, 10 Dec 2001, John Gilmore wrote:

> What puzzles me is how the mediocre X Window System has attracted no
> competitors.  Yes, it's a hard job supporting all those hardware

Dude, there are HUNDREDS of alternate GUI front-ends (the vast majority
are not compatible with X (aka MIT's Athens - there's your clue as to its
popularity). Unfortunately they don't get the technical backing to get a
significant 'bootstrap' percentage in the market up front. In other words,
when X got started back in the 80's there were no other GUI's that were
nearly that advanced. So people used it. By the time the market expanded
the number of alternative GUI's had a much harder time to get into the
market.


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