On Saturday 26 January 2002 4:23 pm, you wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 26, 2002 at 03:25:09PM -0600, James Stauffer wrote:
> > It is my assumption that for an open source OS the more people that use
> > it the better it will probably be.  So more people using the same OS as
> > you could make the next version better.
>
> Very close, but not quite right, IMO.  More people developing for the
> OS will help it.  A larger number of 'normal' users won't have any
> direct effect on the quality of the OS or its applications, although
> they could have an indirect effect by inducing more companies to
> invest developer time in the OS.
>
> Also keep in mind that it's really all about the apps, not the OS.
> When the FreeBSD crew finds and fixes a sendmail exploit, it improves
> every box running sendmail, regardless of OS.

But would a larger user base benefit developments within the kernel?  If that 
base includes corporate users like IBM and Dell, or me and another twenty 
million like myself.  Certainly hardware vendors might take notice and 
provide better driver support.  I would think other development for the 
kernel, not evident to myself, would also result from this market growth.  
Maybe better support for laptop configurations and battery conservation for 
instance?