Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: How wrong is MS-DOS? (or: What is the definition of obsolete)
Message-ID: <3111@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 9 Jan 91 21:54:51 GMT
References: <1991Jan6.183213.27136@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <1991Jan06.204401.21579@turnkey.tcc.com> <1991Jan6.232549.2764@isis.cs.du.edu> <1991Jan08.040128.22819@cs.fau.edu> <339@bria>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
Lines: 34

In article <339@bria> mike@bria.UUCP (Michael Stefanik) writes:

| So was DOS in 1981.  Because DOS is the status quo, that doesn't mean
| you accept it.  The point is *move forward* - convenience has no place
| with progression.  If MS-DOS users were representative of Mankind,
| we'd be living in caves waiting for it to lightning so we could get some
| fire ...

  No, we'd have colonies on the moon and Mars. DOS users are the ones
who use the computer as a tool, not a way of life. They can edit some
files, produce a few spreadsheets, do their taxes, and maybe play a game
or two. They go on to solve useful (read as money making) problems with
their little computers, and don't think about upgrading until they have
a problem they can't solve with the existing resources.

  The people who are content with DOS don't see as anything but a way to
do a job. They solve problems with existing resources instead of
worrying about new ones. They are the people who put Skylab up several
decades ago. The scientists who now say that we can't put up a space
station because it will need constant repairs don't use DOS. They never
get anything done because they are always sharpening their tools.

| technoignorami (tek'no-ig'no-ram`i) a group of individuals that are constantly
| found to be saying things like "Well, it works on my DOS machine ..."

  As opposed to people who write income tax programs in Emacs macros,
and keep saying things like "I don't need support, I have the source.
Given a few days I can add the feature."

  DOS doesn't fit my usage, but for typical business applications it
works just fine.
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
    VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.