Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!nec-gw!brahms@NECAM.tdd.sj.nec.com
From: brahms@NECAM.tdd.sj.nec.com (George Skillman)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Flames on UNIX/OS/2/Microsoft
Message-ID: <451@nec-gw.nec.com>
Date: 8 Feb 91 04:21:29 GMT
Sender: news@nec-gw.nec.com
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Organization: NEC-AM TDD, San Jose, California
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I just moved to Silicon Valley and I'm amazed at how many UNIX
snobs hate OS/2 without knowing a damn thing about what it has to
offer.  I've been programming under UNIX since Version 6 and I think
UNIX is wonderful because it brought fundamental operating system
facilities out of ivory towers and into widespread use.

I also think UNIX sucks for several reasons.  First, it's merciless
to novice users who end up having to hire a high paid staff to
administrate the damn thing.  Second, it's missing a lot of things
that should have been added some time ago.  For instance, OS/2 is

	     B E T T E R

than UNIX in the following respects:

1) OS/2 has threads which are wonderful when you're doing GPI 
   programming.

2) OS/2 has a decent windowing system.  UNIX's X Windows sucks!
   X Windows is device dependent/pixel based.  Presentation Manager
   (PM) is more like PostScript: you have arbitrary coordinate sytems
   and you can define arbitrary paths that can be filled, stroked, etc.
   All you can do in X Windows is define polygons, rectangles
   and elipses.  X has a few advantages, like being distributed,
   but the "feature" of being able to change so much of the
   behaviour of programs through the resource manager is dangerous
   at customer sites.  PM also supports scalable fonts; X doesn't.

3) OS/2 has REAL debuggers instead of the wimpy crap that comes
   with UNIX.  Microsoft's CodeView is decent enough but 
   Logitech's MultiScope debugger is a very sophisticated debugger
   with a windowed (both character & PM) interface.

4) Although OS/2 inherited DOS's brain damaged command line tools,
   there's lots of stuff available from MKS along with fantastic
   text editors (Brief) from Solution Systems and other companies.

5) OS/2 has both run-time and load-time shared libraries.  Gotta
   go with newer versions of UNIX or SUN/OS to get that.

6) OS/2 and LAN Manager are a heck of a lot easier to administrate
   than UNIX and TCP/IP/Ethernet.  Perhaps all the Yellow Pages,
   etc, are more powerful, but in an office environment where
   your secretary often has to run things, simplicity is VERY
   IMPORTANT!  Hey you hot shot engineers!  Quit being snooty
   about all the neat features your products have and worry a
   little more about whether or not your customers can understand/use
   them! As to the fact that OS/2 is a single user system: hey, I want
   my own machine anyway!  I've yet to work on a UNIX system that
   wasn't overloaded.  Our network here at NEC is so slow I often think
   this diskless workstation stuff is for the birds.


Look, I agree OS/2 has problems:

1) When I programmed under 1.1, the system kept crashing all the time.

2) OS/2 doesn't provide core files when your program crashes.
   (Fortunately, Logitech's MultiScope provides capturing
   core files for you.)
   
3) There's no command-line "ps" nor "kill".

4) The FAT file system is a joke.  There's no way to really check it
   thoroughly with a UNIX-like "fsck".  But the new HPFS file system,
   if it ever gets out into the mainstream, is pretty slick.
   
5) Lastly, as everyone knows, OS/2 is currently written in assembly for
   a machine running in 16 bit mode.  Hopefully that will change.


And now that I've bashed on UNIX, I want my chance to bash on the
money-grubbers that end up steering the course of the computer
industry more than we powerless engineers.


I think one thing we all agree on is ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN DOS!
Look what happened to the PC industry.  Apple was doing just great with
its innovative machines using a decent microprocessor.
In steps IBM (king of hype and the inverse price/performance ratio)
fumbling the ball for all mankind by picking
the Intel 8088 with *segmentation* and getting Microsoft to provide
a *program loader* for an operating system.  It's one thing to botch
a job when you're the first with a new kind of product but quite
another when you have an excellent example like UNIX to follow.
Was it really so important to follow CPM's example?  Not much later,
Apple manages to get the MacIntosh out based on technology Xerox
couldn't get their act together on.  How many years did it take
for Microsoft to just catch up?

Now, all three have a chance to atone for their sins.  Intel has
introduced a decent chip, the 80386, and IBM/Microsoft have
introduced a *real* operating system, OS/2.  So who's stinking
up the works?  Microsoft!

After all, what besides OS/2 has Microsoft done right?  Do they
have the best word processor?  No.  Do they have the best
spreadsheet?  Only maybe.  How's their compiler?  More expensive
than Turbo C++ and it doesn't even support C++!  Are they
at the forefront of anything in this industry?  Are they any
good at making projected release dates?  Is their software
particularly reliable?  A *Best Buy*?  No!  And now they want us to
cling to DOS with Windows patching up the holes and thank them for it?
And of course their marketing department will continue to portray
them as God's benevolent force in the computer industry.

Hey Microsoft!  I can see the future where our gandchildren are
telepathic with their computers but still have to remember to put
double quotes around their "find" commands because DOS 999.999
still doesn't have a command interpreter than can parse command
line arguments!  Haven't you guys made enough money off of us?
For reasons that have nothing to do with technical merit, you're
the ones who will probably decide what PCs will be like in the
next ten years for the whole damn world!  If you won't/can't do a
good job at it, let someone else.  After all, even IBM at least tried
to do that!

=================================================================================
George Skillman
NEC America
brahms@tdd.sj.nec.com

Needless to say, my opinions aren't necessarily those of my company.
=================================================================================