*BSD News Article 45125


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From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Slight flame from Linux user
Date: 7 Jun 1995 16:02:29 +0100
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <3r4f25$c5j@hamilton.maths.tcd.ie>
References: <3qq5i8$2jj@anshar.shadow.net> <3qqotb$sla@hamilton.maths.tcd.ie> <D9nMI9.Lys@midway.uchicago.edu> <D9pJBs.KG4@plato.ds.boeing.com> <GPALMER.95Jun7001333@westhill.cdrom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hamilton.maths.tcd.ie

gpalmer@westhill.cdrom.com (Gary Palmer) writes:

>OK - we can hold the users hand in lots of different ways,
>have a nice menuing system which hides the underlying complexity
>of the system (and please don't try telling me UN*X isn't complex!)

Do you have even a rough measure of the complexity of an OS,
according to which Unix is more complex than say Windows NT,
or even MacOS ?

In my view, for what it is worth, the Unix kernel is more consistent,
and therefore less complex, than either of these.

The supposed complexity of Unix is used as an excuse by those
who are unwilling or unable to document clearly
and offer proper installation tools.

It was reassuring to read Jordan Hubbard's populist manifesto
after all the self-satisfied and off-putting posts
from the "Unix is difficult => I am clever" crowd.

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland