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From: n177ac@tamuts.tamu.edu (Daryl Biberdorf)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: A3000UX competition
Summary: UNIX is big 'cuz we made it that way
Message-ID: <11088@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 28 Dec 90 14:41:42 GMT
References: <6352@crash.cts.com> <37298@cup.portal.com>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
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Organization: Texas A&M University
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In article <37298@cup.portal.com> mike_myke_schwartz@cup.portal.com writes:

>2.	It is unfortunate that a Unix machine demands 12Meg of RAM and
>	a gigabyte of hard disk to be usable as a workstation.  And Unix
>	may not even have applications that are more worth using than
>	cheaper machines.  Perhaps people should spend time optimizing
>	Unix so that it would allow more of that 12Meg to be used for
>	applications instead of for OS overhead.

UNIX machines don't *have* to demand 12 MB of RAM and a gigabyte of hard
disk space.  I run UNIX on a machine with 2 MB of RAM, a 40 MB hard disk,
and a 10 MHz 68010 processor.  (AT&T's infamous 3B1.)  I mainly
run in text mode, although tere are a couple of window managers available.

UNIX itself is not the problem, I believe.  The problem is in things
like XWindows, a complete distribution for which, I believe, takes
up about 40MB of hard disk space (include files and all that).  That's
one BIG GUI.  

In more realistic terms, 12 MB of RAM is not that tall of an order
anymore.  At $50/MB, 12 MB works out to $600 or so.  When you're talking
about machines that cost $8k or more, $600 isn't that bad.  Hard disk
prices are expected to fall dramatically over the next couple of years.
That, coupled with falling memory prices, should make UNIX much more
accessible.

>3.	Why not use the Amiga instead of a workstation for "workstation
>	things"?  Is it true that companies like Sun and Silicon Graphics
>	are looking at the Amiga operating system with a little amazement,
>	because it is the ONLY REALTIME multitasking operating system of any
>	major workstation?

Perhaps because AmigaOS doesn't support memory protection?  I *love*
my Amiga, but it still crashes a bit too often (even once/month) for
my taste.   I know that "clean" programs won't do this, but we
all now how concerned programmers are about about writing clean code
versus meeting deadlines. 

--Daryl Biberdorf, n177ac@tamuts.tamu.edu