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Newsgroups: 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!goliath.apana.org.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!utcsri!cdf.toronto.edu!jdd From: jdd@cdf.toronto.edu (John DiMarco) Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Message-ID: <jdd.829341760@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> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> <bnelsonDpqpz3.M1D@netcom.com> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 20:42:40 GMT Lines: 34 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:537 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3121 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2907 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17122 comp.os.linux.advocacy:44826 bnelson@netcom.com (Bob Nelson) writes: >On Thu, 11 Apr 1996 22:21:33 GMT, John DiMarco wrote: >>> 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. >Wouldn't such a plan really only serve to ultimately destroy unix? Is >not one of its primary strengths predicated upon the notion that unix >is indeed not _meant_ to appeal to "most users"? The use of Windows and >other Microsoft platforms by some should be of no concern to the unix >community. UNIX as a development operating system more-or-less as it is today will remain. I am proposing an _addition_ to what we have today, not as a replacement. If you prefer it rephrased: "UNIX-like operating system(s) ought to contribute a kernel and related technology to an as-yet-unnamed application-focused operating system". Is that better? 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