Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!lll-winken!taco!hobbes!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Amiga OS *IS* state of the art Message-ID: <1991Apr2.171837.27186@ncsu.edu> Date: 2 Apr 91 17:18:37 GMT References: Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 29 In kudla@rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) writes: > Okay - but I claim that a personal computer OS doesn't need > file/process ownership, security, or any of the junk Unix, VMS, etc > have to allow multiple users. True, an OS doesn't _need_ it, but then a personal computer doesn't "need" multitasking either ;-). Obviously tho, such features can be very handy. * For example, when a friend of mine loans out his multiuser system to a club for a demo, he doesn't worry about his source code and other private information still being on disk; the login and security protects him. * Other friends use the security to let their children play computer games, but not to have access to most directories... preventing accidental erasure or access of important files. Like x-rated GIFs, for one thing . * Plus the multiuser part allows use in small business; gives remote user login as standard; makes running a BBS in the background a piece of cake; lets you decode a GIF _while_ downloading instead of after it's all down. > Once you put one in an educational or corporate environment you need > multiuser capability, but I daresay in such an environment it's no > longer a personal computer..... All my above examples describe any home computer running OS-9. So... does that make say, a Tandy CoCo, "no longer a personal computer"? Maybe. But the owners still think it is :-). I suspect that people often claim something is "unnecessary" because their own system is missing it, eh? But yes, if you define "a personal computer" as a machine that no one else EVER uses or has physical/electronic access to AT ALL, then I agree with you. I wonder how common that is, tho? best - kevin