[Info-vax] RMS intro

[Dan Cross]

In article <un1s48$2r0sq$1 at dont-email.me>,
Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo at nz.invalid> wrote:
>On Tue, 2 Jan 2024 19:41:21 -0000 (UTC), Dan Cross wrote:
>> Furthermore, the rate of change in Linux is high; following along from
>> outside is fraught.
>
>Strange, isn't it: Microsoft must have access to at least a couple of 
>orders of magnitude greater development resources than that available to 
>the Linux kernel project,

Almost certainly the inverse is true.  Indeed, this is _why_, if
I were MSFT, I would be looking at how I could leverage the rest
of the world's investment in Linux while minimizing my own cost
for maintaining Windows.

>yet they cannot keep up with what the Linux developers have achieved.

Don't sell Microsoft short: their kernel engineers are
first-rate and incredibly sharp.  But they only have so many,
and regardless of how many they have, they have fewer than
Linux.

On the other hand, don't look at Linux with rose-colored
glasses.  The idea of the lone Linux kernel hacker independently
building something that rivals commercial vendors with nothing
more than a bag of dorittos and bottle of Jolt is a distant
memory.  The reality is that _most_ Linux development is heavily
subsidized by commercial interests these days; getting something
non-trivial into the kernel requires lots of time and resources.
In theory an individual could do it, but in practice that's
pretty rare.

	- Dan C.