Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!life!burley From: burley@geech.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: True Multitasking Message-ID: Date: 30 Jan 91 21:38:58 GMT References: <42598@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <678@tnc.UUCP> <1991Jan27.100824.6629@marlin.jcu.edu.au> <1991Jan28.220234.29712@NCoast.ORG> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Organization: Free Software Foundation 545 Tech Square Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 253-8568 Lines: 56 In-reply-to: davewt@NCoast.ORG's message of 28 Jan 91 22:02:34 GMT In article <1991Jan28.220234.29712@NCoast.ORG> davewt@NCoast.ORG (David Wright) writes: In article <1991Jan27.100824.6629@marlin.jcu.edu.au> glmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matt Crowd) writes: >I don't know about calling it a feature! I am sick of the >lack of memory protection. I would definitely endure slightly slower >performance and the need for some major software re-writes >for it. Personally, I am GLAD the Amiga is not Unix, and does not try to be. If I wanted Unix I would use it (3000UX). Unix is like a big old-fashioned Cadilac. It includes things for every user that many users don't want/need, and protects everyone behind battleship strength security and impact resistance. The Amiga is like a compact sports car. When you hit a bump, you know it. But if it is driven by a knowledgeable driver, the results are far better than anything a Caddy could ever do. Uh...no. UNIX ain't no cadillac. Most implementations I know of do provide memory protection because they provide virtual memory, but I don't think either one is required by any standard UNIX. Cadillac OS? Try Multics, or maybe VAX/VMS. Under UNIX, you get nothing but a bunch of little tools. You're supposed to hook them up together however you need to do the job. There's no "undelete", for example -- but you can implement it if you want, and fairly easily. There's no command line processor -- but one or more "shells" available, which means you can write your own. AmigaOS is almost certainly head and shoulders above any other OS when running on Amiga computers, especially because of the specialized hardware they use, also because of their target audience. This isn't surprising and doesn't really say much -- but I said it in case anyone thought I disagreed with "the results are far better than anything a Caddy could ever do". If I had to travel through a forest fast, I'd prefer a motorcycle to a Caddy, too. My impression of UNIX and AmigaOS is that AmigaOS has lots of the "good" features of UNIX -- flexibility, the ability to remain fairly stripped-down, et cetera -- while forgoing multi-user capability, and adding more modern built-in facilities like graphics management, perhaps(?) a more full- featured file system, and so on. But comparing UNIX and AmigaOS is much less useful than comparing AmigaOS to Mac OS and/or MS-DOS and/or VMS &c, for one simple reason: unlike the others, UNIX is a portable operating system. No matter what faults it has, this is the one big reason it is becoming so popular. From lowly 286 machines to Crays, UNIX can reside. In this sense, AmigaOS and MacOS are cadillacs and UNIX the motorcycle -- it is much more flexible in this field of endeavor (portability) than are they, and also much more limited, because it can't standardize around things that aren't common among many varieties of machines. If I knew for sure I was going to be working on only one basic machine/architecture for a long, long time, I'd do my best to avoid UNIX. Because I don't, I must embrace it. Ooomph. -- James Craig Burley, Software Craftsperson burley@ai.mit.edu