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Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!inferno.mpx.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!utcsri!cdf.toronto.edu!jdd From: jdd@cdf.toronto.edu (John DiMarco) Subject: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Message-ID: <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> Sender: news@cdf.toronto.edu (Usenet News) Nntp-Posting-Host: coke Organization: University of Toronto Computing Disciplines Facility X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #6 (NOV) References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 22:21:33 GMT Lines: 65 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21126 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:533 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3113 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2896 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17107 comp.os.linux.advocacy:44739 mgbaker@cs.Stanford.EDU (Mary G. Baker) writes: >I think the free UNIXes have an opportunity to increase the size of the >pie, for themselves and for commercial vendors. Maybe it's the last >chance... And part of the issue is looking at what characteristics are >important in a system for much of the world. Performance is important, >or we wouldn't have done our benchmarks, but it's not the only thing. >Sometimes those of us in academic environments (and others as well) get >too wrapped up in performance issues, since they're so interesting to >look at. But maybe it would be better if many of us considered other >characteristics, such as packaging and documentation, not merely >important, but truly as sexy as performance. Thank you, Mary, for raising this issue. It is worth serious discussion. Perhaps it is time for a free Unix variant to emerge that can serve as a simple, relatively small, reliable, and straightforward platform for running applications. This is how most users make use of their computers. Yes, many UNIX users seem to use their UNIX-like systems for development, which is wonderful: this is what UNIX was originally designed for. But there is a crying need for a more robust applications platform for novice users, users who are not interested in operating systems for their own sake and who don't want to be bothered with shells, kernel reconfiguration, and whatnot. Windows 3.x/95 is not known for its robustness and reliability. Windows NT has too heavy a footprint (and price) for the desktop. The Mac OS is only available on a limited number of hardware platforms. The various commercial UNIXen appear to be expensive and complex, and the commercial vendors, although theoretically capable of doing something about this, seem uninterested or unmotivated. There is a historical opportunity for a free UNIX-like operating system, be it LINUX or BSD, to fill the gap. What will it take? All relevant shell and file interfaces will need to be replaced by simple, point-and-click window-based interfaces (with sensible defaults), so that completely applications-oriented users can install, configure, and use the operating system without even having to know what a shell or an editor is, let alone how to use one. Tools to efficiently build such a thing (eg. tcl/tk) are already in place. Yes, this is a concept foreign to the typical UNIX mindset, but it's required if any UNIX-like operating system will gain a foothold among the general computing population. Why is it a good thing to turn a nice development operating system into a glorified program loader? Easy: a platform to run applications -- and only this -- is exactly what most users want. If no BSD or LINUX-based operating system exists that does this in a straightforward and simple fashion, such users will go elsewhere, as they have up until now. And where the users go, the application developers follow. Then Gates and Co. will continue to dominate the desktop application computing market with operating system software that many - including myself - consider technically inferior to most of the alternatives, free UNIX-like systems included. Naturally, such an effort will pay dividends for technical users, too, like Mary, who are perfectly capable of configuring and using a complex OS with rough edges, but don't always want to be bothered. The creators of FreeBSD, and some of the LINUX distributions, have made important steps in this direction. I would strongly encourage them to make it a critical priority. The opportunity is slipping away. Regards, John -- John DiMarco <jdd@cdf.toronto.edu> Office: EA201B Computing Disciplines Facility Systems Manager Phone: 416-978-1928 University of Toronto Fax: 416-978-1931 http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/~jdd