Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:59:04 -0400
Message-Id: <200008241959.PAA19054@envy.delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <mucaqs0p06etnaldu00atmcnbci1o5tsoa@4ax.com> (message from
	AndrewJ on Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:13:55 GMT)
Subject: Re: Watcom C++ opened?
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> >> Wrong.  Cygwin GNUPro.
> 
> Is it "mass market?"

The last statistics I heard was that Cygnus got the contracts for
about 75% of all new microprocessors.  Granted, there aren't that many
microprocessor vendors, but the same compiler ends up in Linux, and
the GNU tools themselves have been very popular over the last 10-20
years or so.  You can buy Red Hat (and others) Linux and Cygnus GNUPro
in the local mall - I'm not sure how much more "mass" the market would
need to be to qualify.

> >I think they meant proprietary, not commercial.  Obviously they don't
> >really understand what they're talking about, so there's not much
> >point arguing against them.
> 
> Hmmm... you know, that just lowered my opinion of you a bit.  Seemed
> rather insulting and unnecessary.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but I'm sticking to my statement.  I
*still* have to remind our *own* marketing people (Cygnus) about the
difference between commercial and proprietary.  I've long since
learned not to bother if it's someone else's company.  I've also
learned that people who don't understand the difference usually don't
care about the difference, so trying to teach them is a wasted effort.

Of course, my main point was to avoid a long thread about Watcom on a
forum where Watcom is off-topic.

> >>and, with more than a million lines of source code, the Watcom
> >
> >Oh, and GNUpro is about *ten* million lines of code.
> 
> "Mine's bigger than yours".  Childish.

GNUPro isn't "mine".  I'm just pointing out that you should take
marketing statements with a great deal of cynicism, even when they're
your own company.  If you think it's childish to examine the facts and
make an informed decision, oh well.