Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sco!seanf From: seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m88k Subject: Re: 88k Macintoshes? / New 88k family member Message-ID: <8563@scolex.sco.COM> Date: 4 Nov 90 08:25:27 GMT References: <127@raysnec.UUCP> Sender: news@sco.COM Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. Lines: 38 [This should probably go to comp.os.misc, I think] In article twl@cs.brown.edu (Ted "Theodore" W. Leung) writes: >For one thing, as far as unsophisticated users are concerned, >Multifinder was an innovation in operating systems design, even >though it's particular type of multitasking is old hat to computer >scientists. Yes, the user-interface used in MultiFinder is an innovation. Too bad Apple didn't think it up, eh? (Actually, it's *good* that Apple didn't, or else nobody else could use a windowing graphical user interface.) >By the same note, much of what is appearing in UNIX today >is old hat to Multics people. Well... not necessarily. In Multics, everything was memory. In Unix, everything is (within limits) a file. mmap(), for example, can be viewed as a way to assign a memory location to a file (instead of the more mainstream interpretation of assigning a file to a location in memory). (No, that's not a perfect interpretation, either one, but... 8-)) >. I >would hope that when they cut to a new CPU, that additional innovation >would occur, not just more of the same (and in my opinion A/UX, >NeXTStep, OpenLook, etc are just more of the same). Again, Apple didn't really do that much innovation. True, they did a lot of *work* on the Mac, but the real innovation had been done at PARC. (As derogatory as I might be towards Apple, I *would* like to point out that, yeah, they did something really impressive with the Mac. I just don't think it was that innovative...) -- -----------------+ Sean Eric Fagan | "*Never* knock on Death's door: ring the bell and seanf@sco.COM | run away! Death hates that!" uunet!sco!seanf | -- Dr. Mike Stratford (Matt Frewer, "Doctor, Doctor") (408) 458-1422 | Any opinions expressed are my own, not my employers'.