USENIX Board Studies UUCP

[mjl at cs.rit.edu]

In article <49017 at looking.on.ca> brad at looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
>In article <1989Nov16.182104.23746 at utzoo.uucp> henry at utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>If you really want a UUCP replacement to catch on, it has to be something
>>that *everyone*, even the folks with nervous lawyers or absolutely no money,
>>can run, and that vendors can distribute without extra paperwork or cost.
>
>You mean like the group III FAX standard?   Yeah, right, a communications
>protocol spoken by machines from hundreds of manufacturers, and you
>actually have to pay for the hardware and/or software?
>
>You're right, it'll never catch on, unless they give it away.  :-)

I think Brad's ignoring the fact of an existing, usable, if admittedly
non-optimal alternative.  Henry's comments are to the point, and simply
echo something I heard Bill Joy once state:  the first entry in a new
market niche sets the standard; to dislodge it, a competitor has have
significant advantages -- marginal advantages won't do.  In that
particular case he was discussing C vs. Modula-2, but the concept
applies equally well here.

And what's significant, of course, is determined by the buyers in the
target market.

Mike Lutz
Mike Lutz	Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY
UUCP:		{rutgers,cornell}!rochester!rit!mjl
INTERNET:	mjlics at ultb.isc.rit.edu