Mike Nix

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since September 6, 2003

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September 6, 2003, on Why Bill Gates is Richer than You:
well, I doubt anyone can read the *whole* page anymore, but I've read quite a bit of it - The analogy of Grog's Hammer was an interesting way to put it - but Grog didn't charge people for the right to make hammers. You didn't have to make "hammer compatible" nails, and when someone invented the "nail driver" he didn't get sued, bought out or otherwise discouraged by Grog. Grog's hammer was also compatible with all carbon-based lifeforms capable of grasping/operating tools. I think Linux is actually far more like Grog's hammer than Windows is - it can run on a far greater range of hardware (you can run a fully multi-tasking linux on anything from a 386 up. It runs on many architectures, not just a couple - even wierd stuff it was never intended for - some wireless access points can have their firmware replaced with linux. Even Cisco 2500 routers can run linux (they're still developing some of the drivers for the network interfaces, but the linux core is the same proven code). Now af...