*BSD News Article 89650


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.wildstar.net!news.ececs.uc.edu!newsfeeds.sol.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!198.4.241.4!brownfox.svs.com!vickery
From: vickery@tornado.svs.com (Jeffrey M. Vickery)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.programmer.misc,comp.sys.powerpc.advocacy,comp.sys.next.advocacy,comp.sys.next.programmer,comp.sys.next.misc,comp.unix.machten,comp.unix.osf.misc,comp.os.mach,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Apple Mach IS NOT a microkernel!!!!!
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 12:44:07 -0600
Organization: Sun Valley SoftWare, Ltd. (tornado)
Lines: 54
Message-ID: <vickery-ya02408000R1902971244070001@brownfox>
References: <jm041536-1702972018170001@mencjo.apple.com> <5edvm7$t2v@news0-alterdial.uu.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tornado.svs.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.4.0
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.sys.mac.advocacy:178718 comp.sys.mac.programmer.misc:18372 comp.sys.powerpc.advocacy:15148 comp.sys.next.advocacy:54971 comp.sys.next.programmer:27312 comp.sys.next.misc:42757 comp.unix.machten:3705 comp.unix.osf.misc:3803 comp.os.mach:5998 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:53639 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2551

In article <5edvm7$t2v@news0-alterdial.uu.net>, mail25193@pop.net wrote:

> Just as an aside, imagine for a moment what things would be like if everyone
> in the workplace (note ! - just the workplace) who now has a PC on their desk
> running a DOS/MS derivative would instead have a PC on their desk running Unix
> with a GUI, a minimal administrative interface, and the productivity tools 
> equivalent to what they have under MS (which exist, please don't even
start that
> discussion.)

Fred:
I can't agree with you more!  In fact, an aquaintance of mine that used to
work for John Deer (The farm equipment people) as a programmer told me all
about the system that he used to do updates for back in what I believe was
the early 80's...

Since Windows didn't exist at this time, Unix was really widely used in the
business world - but usually with badly written packages that one would use
via a terminal.  However, Deer decided to implement a workgroup system that
ran over SVR4 with Berkeley enhancements (essentially just the 'r'-series
commands).  What they found is that they could write their own windowing
system (similar to X11) that could be customized for their own use - not
somebody else's interface guidelines (i.e. MS Windows).  Releasing updates
was a snap because, of course, the system was easy to patch.

Instead of hinging their technological ability on how often Microsoft would
decide to release an update, they had a powerful client/server based system
that could be easily modified by an in-house staff of "computer geeks" that
knew Unix.  Imagine how much money would be saved in the American business
(hell, the global business) if such systems were implemented today. 
Instead of letting Gates get a share of everything, everything would be
based on an industry-standard that can be ported to practically any other
Unix platform.

One common complaint is that you would then have systems that can't talk to
each other.  The contrary, though, is true - TCP/IP is good enough to drive
a network as large as the Internet - why wouldn't it be good enough for
corporate Intranet's?  MS and any other Windows peddling company seems to
think so as well, as they're dumping millions into the Intranet
philosophy...Something that could have been done with Unix systems almost
20 years ago.

I think relying on a key player like MS to provide updates for "everything"
will be the downfall...or at least I hope it will be.

Anyway, enough ranting...

Best,
Jeff
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   Jeffrey M. Vickery   | Electronic Mail: vickery@tornado.svs.com         |
|  System Administrator  +--------------------------------------------------+
|    tornado.svs.com     | World Wide Web: http://tornado.svs.com/~vickery/ |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+