[Info-vax] Vax Station 4000 VLC

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/26/2018 11:08 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
> Ok, the thread seems to have moved on from "proper keyboard", which 
> isn't something provided by any OS vendor, to browsers.  So I'll ask, 
> what OS vendors provide a browser as part of the OS?
> 
> Yes, there might be an argument that WEENDOZE comes with a browser, 
> though I seem to recall some actions in the past where there was some 
> legal issues with this concept.

Windows comes with IE/Edge.

At some location at some time it was a legal requirement to give users
the choice of browser.

But even there MS provided the browser as an option as part of
the OS.

> But what about Unix and the many flavors of Linux?  I'm not talking 
> about what might be provided as part of a distribution.  I'm talking 
> about vendor developed.

What does "vendor developed" really mean in the context of Linux.

There is an open source project Linux kernel that does not include
a web browser.

There are a few open source projects providing web browsers that
run on Linux.

There are hundreds of Linux distributions with the Linux kernel and
a lot of application. Most of these include one or more web browesers
among these applications.

There are companies selling support for Linux distributions. And
if the distribution includes a web browser then they also support that.
Support typically just mean making patches provided by the original
open source project available, but can also mean that they actually
need to do the fix themselves (and send the fix back to
the original open source project).

So Linux typical do come with a browser.

And I have no clue about what "vendor developed" really means
for Linux.

Redhat certainly does not provide a closed source Redhat developed
browser.

But no one would expect that.

> The real problem here is that Phillip wants whatever he wants, but, one 
> should keep a level playing field.  If some of the utilities available 
> with other operating systems actually come from third parties, then why 
> should VMS be held to a higher standard?

OS specific browsers are on the endangered species list.

No one want such. Even MS is moving away from that.

> Now, if the problem is that if some browser, for example Firefox, 
> doesn't run on VMS, then complain to the Firefox people.  Good luck with 
> that.

FF is an open source project.

I suspect the FF people will just point us to the source and tell us
to start porting.

:-)

Arne