*BSD News Article 8153


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Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd:8206 comp.unix.solaris:603
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.solaris
Subject: Re: Solaris 1.1 vs. Solaris 2.0 (BSD vs AT&T)
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.hawaii.edu!ames!think.com!unixland!rmkhome!rmk
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1992 06:00:24 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Message-ID: <9211260100.43@rmkhome.UUCP>
References: <BxLz6x.EL7@cs.uiuc.edu> <1992Nov13.232053.7061@sjsumcs.sjsu.edu> <1992Nov16.075931@eklektix.com> <id.U_0V.SJ3@ferranti.com> <22947@venera.isi.edu>
Lines: 37

In article <22947@venera.isi.edu> allard@isi.edu (Dennis Allard) writes:
>peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
>> ... Unfortunately, I suspect NT will do all this better and UNIX on
>> the desktop is doomed whether it's SV or BSD.
>
>Unix has the following going for it.
>
>1. Millions of current users (NT has no users yet)
>2. Has been ported to more platforms than DOS or Windows (will NT
>   seek to rival Unix in that regard.  If so, how???)
>3. Supports a network based windowing system.  Will NT?  (The Windows
>   API is not designed to work over a network, to my knowledge)
>4. In particular, supports X windows.  Will NT support X windows?
>5. Freeware versions being worked on by quite compentant people.  Will
>   NT have freeware versions?
>
>The typical criticisms I here about Unix are about things such as
>cryptic commands and lack of a User Guide.  I make those criticisms
>myself.  However, such things are easy to fix.  Rarely does one hear
>more substantive criticism about the OS architecture.  There are
>technical areas where Unix can be criticized, but I have no evidence
>yet that NT will not have similar weak points.  NT, after all, is OT.
>
>A prediction.  UNIX will not die.  If anything, the existence of NT
>will educate more people about operating systems and cause an increase
>in the number of systems capable of supporting Unix.  This will be a
>boon for Unix.  Furthermore, internetworking between Unix and NT will
>be a boon for Unix as people make use of the existing mature client/server
>technologies which have been pioneered on Unix.

And NT will mostly be marketed as a server for Intel boxes running
Windows 3.x apps.  It has no other method for being a truly multiuser
OS.  Which is probably why it will be marketed as Windows 3.1 NT.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP