Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!titan!lofaso
From: lofaso@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Bernie Lofaso)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Minix for the Amiga...vaporware
Summary: AmigaDos vs. Unix
Message-ID: <513@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 89 12:54:54 GMT
References: <1610@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu> <195@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU>
Organization: Applied Research Labs, University of Texas; Austin, IX
Lines: 53

In article <195@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU>, benton@VAX1.CC.UAKRON.EDU (Kevin Benton) writes:
> I'll agree with you that AmigaDOS is half way decent for the user
> interface, although from a programmer's standpoint, the operating
> system itself is about the buggiest thing I have ever seen.  When my
> Amiga crashes CLI's for no apparent reason, I would tend to think
> there must be something better out there, especially since Minix comes
> with SOURCE CODE!!!!
> 

I have a very difficult time with the part about "the buggiest thing I
have ever seen".  This is simply hog wash.  AmigaDOS is no more buggy than
most other operating systems.  My guess is that Mr. Benton may be running
much PD software which, as one might expect, does not live up to more
rigorous programming standards that some of us might expect.  There are
several issues, which Mr. Benson's message alludes to, as have others
posted on the net, which nobody seems to have addressed.

How many people who have OS source (to Minix or anything else) would
actually do anything with it?  While there are plenty of good programmers
who might could do something with it, would they have the time or care?
The number of those who would are statistically insignificant compared to
the number of those who wouldn't know what to do with the code.  Typically
systems of this magnitude are either incomprehesible or trivial.

Why do you want Minix (Unix, etc.) on your Amiga?  I suspect many people
voice a desire because it's extremely popular and they are used to it.
Excellent reasons, but are you also used to the system administration
headaches that can come along with it? (Since only a C= Unix would ever
become popular, when you add devices to Minix, etc. guess who gets to
write the device drivers. :-)
There are also other disadvantages to Unix-like systems.  I've not seen
one yet that had decent real-time response.  Well, some are decent, but
the response of AmigaDos is in my opinion superior.  There is also a more
elegance of design to the AmigaDos system.  (That might be good for a
few flames.) I wouldn't want to do without the ASSIGN command and logical
volumes in general. I could go on.
> 
> I don't know if you have ever used Unix before, but there's a lot more
> for Unix than just Multiple Users... (not to mention 2000 times more
> pd software, interprocess communication, etc.)
> 

Now you've hit the nail on the head... it's not that you're in love with
Unix's process communications (which incidently aren't as good as AmigaDos
except on newer systems like SunOS), but it's the utilities!  Life is not
worth living if I can come in early in the morning and grep a few files
to start my day.  With make, diff, awk, etc. etc. etc. life is so much
easier.  But, since most of these have been ported to the Amiga, including
some impressive user shells to replace the CLI (don't like CLI... only
dirty three letter word I know), what's the advantage?  I think that if
people consider arguments like these, there would be much less desire to
run Unix on the Amiga. (Did I also mention disk and memory requirements
for Unix.  Hardware vendors love it I'm sure.)