Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!milton!Tomobiki-Cho!mrc
From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: X11 opinion.
Message-ID: <9749@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 23 Oct 90 02:09:08 GMT
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In article <577@kaos.MATH.UCLA.EDU> barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) writes:
>There one thing that cannot be denied about X11---it is a defacto
>standard. As such, it is valuable. As long as all GUIs support
>X, we can have at least a degree of platform independence, and at least
>do some level of windowing across all platforms and networks. X11
>is a common denominator (and free). That is its value.
>
>Yes, the world would be a better place if X11 could be replaced by
>NeXTStep---but it can't be, since it is proprietary.

This is 100% true!!!  Let me modify this statement slightly:

>There one thing that cannot be denied about Unix---it is a defacto
>standard. As such, it is valuable. As long as all CPUs support
>Unix, we can have at least a degree of platform independence, and at least
>do some level of windowing across all platforms and networks. Unix
>is a common denominator. That is its value.
>
>Yes, the world would be a better place if Unix could be replaced by
>[TOPS-20 | VAX/VMS | what-have-you] ---but it can't be, since it is
>proprietary.

Now do you X-haters understand why X11 is so important?  Unix-haters
had to go through the same thing.  I cringe a little bit every time I
have to look in a manual to find out which one-character switch (don't
forget to get correct upper or lower case!) and which bizarre program
name I need to invoke to do something.  I can remember much friendlier
operating systems, where I could even ask the program to point me at
what to do.  RTFM?  A lot of time, there was *no* FM because the
program's self-documentation sufficed.

But those operating systems are (or were) proprietary, and are dying
(or already dead and buried).  You can cry for the dead, but life must
go on.

After being widowed by the death of TOPS-20 and PDP-10 CPUs, I have no
intention of getting married to NeXTStep.  Fool me twice, shame on me!

 _____   | ____ ___|___   /__ Mark ("Gaijin") Crispin  "Gaijin! Gaijin!"
 _|_|_  -|- ||   __|__   /  / R90/6 pilot, DoD #0105   "Gaijin ha doko?"
|_|_|_|  |\-++-  |===|  /  /  Atheist & Proud          "Niichan ha gaijin."
 --|--  /| ||||  |___|    /\  (206) 842-2385/543-5762  "Chigau.  Gaijin ja nai.
  /|\    | |/\| _______  /  \ MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU    Omae ha gaijin darou"
 / | \   | |__|  /   \  /    \"Iie, boku ha nihonjin." "Souka. Yappari gaijin!"
Hee, dakedo UNIX nanka wo tsukatte, umaku ikanaku temo shiranai yo.