Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: OS cost component of workstation Message-ID: <2859@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Date: 8 Nov 90 16:51:10 GMT References: <2176@lupine.NCD.COM> <42310@mips.mips.COM> <3686@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1990Nov1.234831.2066@ico.isc.com> <3699@skye.ed.ac.uk> <2840@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY Lines: 34 In article peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: | Sigh. 4 Meg and 72 Meg disk is planty for a useful UNIX development | system. I've done real work with a 40 Meg disk, but it's not very | happy. I've done real work on 64k CP/M systems, but that doesn't mean I want to go back there again. A good CP/M system with two drive and a full 64k was about $3000 in 1978, and my wife sold hundreds of them. Given inflation I think that's a reasonable hardware cost for a UNIX system *with* frills, thanks. | X is a frill, not a necessity. News is a frill, not a necessity. Depends on what you're developing. You can say the same thing about screen editors. You can edit nicely with ed, and we did on V6. And as soon as vi came along everybody dropped ed. X is a useful, portable way to do certain graphical things which are not adapted to text. For one screen text work I usually don't use X, or miss it. UNIX is a frill. You can always use MS-DOS and get your cost *real* low. That doesn't make it comfortable. Henry rewrote nroff in awk, but that doesn't mean I intend to scrap to original. It's a great tool for those who don't have the "real thing," and I believe that's how it was intended. I want to see a full featured UNIX at prices anyone can afford, and to say that you can live without the luxuries is true, but a bit frugal for my taste. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) The Twin Peaks Halloween costume: stark naked in a body bag