From: darin_@_usa_._net   
      
   Paul Jankowski  writes:   
      
   > They've been hurting themselves by not sticking to one good stack and   
   > improving it from there.  All the Unix TCP/IP implementations -- including   
   > Linux's -- are far more mature.   
      
   THe maturity is one factor.  However, there are more factors   
   involved.   
      
   There's a a Microsoft attitude that trips them up.  They care about   
   the home and office users; ie, the desktop.  If performance is good   
   enough for that, they stop working on the improvements.  Whereas UNIX   
   gets used anywhere and everywhere, and has to be good all around.   
   Microsoft has never been known for quality, instead they're the   
   masters of "good enough" software.   
      
   Linux and BSD as well have users who report back problems and   
   solutions.  In essence a massive QA team.  Fixes to the networking   
   code gets added back in, whereas at Microsoft there's no impetus to   
   improve things that aren't perceived as broken.   
      
   Finally, UNIX has been a commonly used backdrop for academic research   
   in networking.  Source code is available to universities, freely or   
   cheaply (for proprietary versions of UNIX).  Thus the bar tends to be   
   raised first on UNIX.  Microsoft has tried to make some headway here,   
   but it's definately in catchup mode.   
      
   --   
   Darin Johnson   
       Where am I?  In the village...  What do you want?  Information...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)