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From: crs@lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Unix or DOS (was Re: Where is the long awaited MS DOS 5.0 ?)
Summary: But the OS is irrelevant to this...
Message-ID: <10116@lanl.gov>
Date: 2 Jan 91 20:28:36 GMT
References: <8550@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <josef.660901840@ugum01> <ROSEN.90Dec28144627@tristar.samsung.com>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 50

In article <ROSEN.90Dec28144627@tristar.samsung.com>, rosen@tristar.samsung.com (MFHorn) writes:
> In article <13523@milton.u.washington.edu> dittrich@milton.u.washington.edu (Dave Dittrich) writes:
> > In article <GHENNIGA.90Dec13005440@tesla.nmsu.edu> ghenniga@nmsu.edu (Gary Hennigan) writes:

> I think you're both forgetting the first question EVERY person that is
> considering buying a computer HAS to ask:  What am I going to use it
> for?
> 
> I don't any development on my PC.  I play games, dial other computers
> and putz around with it (as a toy in it's own right).  I know *I*
> haven't seen any Unix version of Railroad Tycoon, Leisure Suit Larry
> (1, 2 or 3), Pool of Radiance, SimCity, etc., etc.  And Procomm Plus
> is far superior to any communications package I've seen for any
> version of Unix.  And I know of at least 3 UUCP packages for DOS..

[In the following, ?? is either PC or MS.  There are other DOS's.]

But I don't believe that this has anything to do with whether the
PC runs ??-DOS or Unix.  It has to do with the fact that there are
so *many* PC's that people have written these program and marketed
them to make a buck.  I believe that if there were the same number
of PC's but that they all used Unix rather than ??-DOS, the
situation would be exactly the same.

It is, of course, arguable that if they used Unix, there wouldn't
be that many PC's but I don't necessarily believe that.  As I said
in a previous post, I believe that it is as easy or easier to learn
a subset of Unix that will do everything you can do with ??-DOS as
it is to learn ??-DOS.  If that is true, there is no reason why (in
a parallel universe? :) the situation could not have occurred
that someone had marketed a PC running Unix and that it became
as ubiquitous as the present PC's.

> If all I had were Unix, I'd almost never use my PC.  With DOS, I use
> it an average of 2 or 3 hours a day.

Is that because you dislike Unix or because you like the games and
other software that you are able to buy for your PC?  Those are
really two separate issues.

I agree with you that the availability of so much "shrink-wrap"
software for PC's is what gives them their value for most users.
Where I disagree is that ??-DOS has anything to do with it.  ??-DOS,
in this context, is a coincidence.

Best,

Charlie Sorsby						"I'm the NRA!"
	crs@lanl.gov
	sorsby@pprg.unm.edu