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From: dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Where does UNIX fit in a graphically-based computer world?
Message-ID: <1990Sep6.161554.28923@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 6 Sep 90 16:15:54 GMT
References: <1990Sep5.202652.700@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <1990Sep5.224940.19185@world.std.com>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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In article <1990Sep5.224940.19185@world.std.com> boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) writes:
>Then everything will depend on HP's and Sun's marketing (that might be quite
>a snag).

I personally find both Sun and HP workstations quite distasteful.  Prejuidice
aside, I think it's a mistake to not to mention NeXT, IBM, and DEC.  DEC
makes better machines with better UNIX than Sun or Appollo.  IBM is, of course,
IBM, and as UNIX moves into the mainstream more and more knee-jerk IBM'ers
will buy IBM stuff.  NeXT hasn't made big inroads yet; but Jobs has done it
twice before, and it wouldn't surprise me if he did it again.

It is also relevant to mention that the GUI vs. UNIX thing cuts both ways;
not only is UNIX getting a GUI, but GUI-heavy machines are finding they
need operating systems.  Witness OS/2, Macintosh System 7, and the new
Windows.  It is at least as valid to ask whether these operating systems
will be any good as it is to ask if the GUI's on top of UNIX are any good.

My own feeling is that it is much easier to put a good GUI on UNIX than it
is to slip a REASONABLE operating system under an existing application base
(the game currently being played in the IBM PC and Mac worlds).


--
Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office
Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu  UUCP: uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!s-dorner