Xref: utzoo comp.misc:6529 comp.os.misc:981 comp.arch:10581
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.os.misc,comp.arch
Subject: Re: TRON (message from the project leader)
Keywords: TRON, standards, operating systems, distributed systems
Message-ID: <4922@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 10 Jul 89 12:00:33 GMT
References: <389@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu> <6340@pdn.paradyne.com> <6353@pdn.paradyne.com>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 44

In article <6353@pdn.paradyne.com>, alan@oz.nm.paradyne.com (Alan Lovejoy) writes:
> In article <4919@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
> >You can be TRON compatible without using a funky operating system on a brain-
> >dead CISC micro. 

> Just like you can be IBM-PC compatible without using MS-DOS on a brain-dead
> Intel-based micro?

But you can't.

> True but irrelevant.

No, it's completely relevant. You're confusing the CPU with peripherals.

> As history has shown, businessmen
> do not think like techies.  MS-DOS machines with Intel CPUs vastly outnumber
> UNIX workstations for business, not technical, reasons.  Why should Westinghouse
> spend mucho money to develop their own proprietary TRON-like system for
> household appliances when they can leverage off of the investments the
> Japanese have made in STANDARD tools?

Why would hundreds of companies make plug-compatible peripherals for IBM
computers... from PCs to mainframes... when you can buy them from IBM? Why
would anyone build a modem that didn't depend on a standard 1200-baud
chipset? Why would anyone bother putting their own master-mode controller
in their IBM-PC cards when there's already a DMA controller on the mother-
board? Why would anyone buy an HP laser printer when it doesn't contain
Adobe software?

Superior performance and/or lower price. If I can spend a million dollars
developing a widget that duplicates the widget I can license from Joe,
but his licensing fees would come to two million over the life of the
product, why shouldn't I do it myself? If I can spend two million and get
a superior product, why shouldn't I?

And there's another fallacy in your statement. Why should Westinghouse
wait for the Japanese to develop a set of standard tools for which there
are no trained programmers, when US universities are turning out untold
numbers of people already familiar with EXISTING standard tools?
-- 
Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Business: peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. | "WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL
Personal: peter@sugar.hackercorp.com.   `-_-' |  THE WOMEN IN TEXAS?"
Quote: Have you hugged your wolf today?  'U`  |  -- ACS1W@jane.uh.edu (meesh)