Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!mintaka!spdcc!tauxersvilli!alphalpha!nazgul From: nazgul@alphalpha.com (Kee Hinckley) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo Subject: Re: process priorities (problem?) Message-ID: <1991Mar20.153951.18930@alphalpha.com> Date: 20 Mar 91 15:39:51 GMT References: <18030@milton.u.washington.edu> <504080ad.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM> <1991Mar20.062300.25980@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> Organization: asi Lines: 36 In article <1991Mar20.062300.25980@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> system@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (System Admin (Mike Peterson)) writes: >Our nodes were sold to us as multi-user workstations (especially the They aren't. >level processes, and to be able to raise any process priority is a gross >violation of UNIX. Apollo UNIX users should never have been given this >"feature" in the first place, which required hacking on the source code. nice required source code hacking just to work. We aren't talking a Unix kernel here. Aegis already had a process priority mechanism that didn't require permissions to use. Unix process priorities had to be mapped onto that without breaking people depending on the previous behavior. >shouldn't be calling their products "UNIX". Gratuitous changes are a >pain in the . There isn't a gratuitous change there. Someone had the following choices: 1) Be incompatible with older Aegis-based software which depends on being able to change process priorities. 2) Lull the Unix user into a false sense of security by not allowing Unix commands to change the priority, but still allowing Aegis commands to. 3) Relax the Unix protections. #1 doesn't fit in with Apollo's stated standards (sure, they don't always maintain compatibility, but they try). #2 is clearly wrong - people get really pissed when they discover that. #3 fits in with the model (which R&D certain had, if not marketing) that an Apollo workstation is a single- user workstation. -- Alfalfa Software, Inc. | Poste: The EMail for Unix nazgul@alfalfa.com | Send Anything... Anywhere 617/646-7703 (voice/fax) | info@alfalfa.com I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate everyone else's.