Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!chip From: chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: Mach from mt Xinu Message-ID: <1906@chinacat.Unicom.COM> Date: 7 Mar 91 19:34:30 GMT References: <6641@saffron1.UUCP> <1991Mar5.232240.19264@mtxinu.COM> <1991Mar6.183453.944@rwwa.COM> Organization: Unicom Systems Development, Austin, TX Lines: 79 >From what I understand of your announcement, the services you are >providing for the purchase fee are: > > 1) Paying royalties to ATT, > 2) Repackaging working CMU software, > 3) Duplicating it onto floppies and tapes, > 4) and (although not stated, but I would assume) duplicating the >documentation. No...you don't understand jack shit. Mt. Xinu has been around for a looong time. Back when all you dudes and dudettes were doing reeely kool stuff like writing BASIC programs for your peecee, Mt. Xinu was shipping the UNIX of choice (BSD4.x) for the hardware system of choice (VAXen). Originally they were the only game in town. Even once DEC grudgingly started shipping an Ultrix, many folks still preferred to run Mt. Xinu's stuff. Funny thing that so many people like Mt. Xinu's BSD. All they do is pay royalties to AT&T, repackage the BSD software, and duplicate the documentation. It is quite ironic that the people who are flaming Mt. Xinu don't want Mach/386 anyway - they are just too ignorant to realize it. If they extricated their heads from their anal cavities, they would realize that Mach/386 is not going to run their Lotus and WordPerfect gunk. In fact, if you don't already know that you want Mach/386 - take my word for it, you probably don't. Well...Mt. Xinu is now bringing what they have done so well in the past on big iron down to the little boxes. Sure, Mach/386 is pricey. But there is only a select group of folks out there who is going to want it. And to those who want it, it will be a great boon. This is what's called, boyz and girlz, a `niche market'. Things in a niche market are more expensive. Ever wondered why a 4-port serial card is more than 2x the cost of a 2-port serial card? That's niche marketing. (There, maybe that's something you peecee heads can understand.) I don't run Mach/386. And I probably won't. I understand what it is, and it doesn't fit in with my expected needs. But that's ok. I played with it a bit at Uniforum, and it seems slick. I don't think I've ever seen anything fork() as fast as this sucker does. Unix has been around a long time. So has Mt. Xinu. When Mt. Xinu announces a product, it would be in your best interests to shut your yap and take a good hard look. I do. These folks have some of the best UNIX systems programmers in the world - even in these days when anybody who bought a peecee thru Computer Shopper calls themselves a UNIX expert. Maybe some of you net.newbies should get a little perspective. Go get the book by Libes and Ressler. That way you can at least pretend you know something about UNIX without making a total arse of yourself. I'm not kowtowing to vendors here, but the incessant vendor bashing is really hurting this group. Lord knows, I've lobbed my own gernades at ISC support and SCO security in the past few weeks. All I can say is I try to pick my targets carefully. I wouldn't pretend to have any great influence upon the world, but the fact that SCO has recently released an SLF to address security and Marty at ISC appears to be driving support into gear at least tells me I haven't been too far off the mark. So, I'm not going to pretend that this is a tea party and we should all be polite and keep our elbows off the table, but flaming a vendor you don't know over a product you've never seen is just downright silly. The problem is, after a while people begin to realize that it's probably smarter to move out of the target area than continue to have bombs dropped upon your head. It's nice to have a channel to vent our collective spleens. In the long run, it would be a lot better if folks would hang around here and not fear for their heads every time they come up for air. -- Chip Rosenthal 512-482-8260 | Unicom Systems Development | I saw Elvis in my wtmp file. |