"Dan" == Dan Ingalls DanI@wdi.disney.com writes:
Dan> I once read a derogatory reference in comp.lang.smalltalk to Dan> Squeak's dependence on the whimsical enthusiasm of a couple of Dan> wizards. Who could ever make product plans upon such shifting Dan> sands?
The same has been said about Larry "Perl" Wall or Guido "Python" von Rossum or Jon "TCL" Ousterhout getting hit by their respective busses.
Funny how that doesn't seem to stop millions of people from using this free software for mission-critical applications all over the world.
Dan> The answer is simple: A Squeak release includes everything about Dan> itself, and probably 25% of the folks on this distribution list Dan> could maintain the any given version single-handedly for the next Dan> 20 years. It's better than being supported. It's having control Dan> over your destiny.
Exactly! Open/free software *is* power over your own destiny. It's only scary to people that are accustomed^Wprogrammed to calling an 800/900 number every time they can't figure out where the "any" key is. :-)
I cringe whenever I have to use poorly-documented probably-buggy proprietary vendor products. I'm too used to Perl and GNU Emacs, I guess. :-)
Just another guy hoping to get proficient with Squeak after abandonding QKS Smalltalk's futures markets,