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From: BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Barbara Vaughan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT as a vanilla UNIX box (was Re: USENIX Summer 1991...)
Message-ID: <12851@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 17 Jun 91 20:19:28 GMT
References: <1991Jun13.142906.28474@ni.umd.edu> <1991Jun13.165313.10653@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> <1991Jun13.195238.29697@umbc3.umbc.edu> <4125@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> <1991Jun17.113150.4890@elevia.UUCP>
Reply-To: BVAUGHAN@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 37
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article

In article <1991Jun17.113150.4890@elevia.UUCP>, alain@elevia.UUCP (W.A.Simon) writes:

>In <4125@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> dmg@ssc-vax (David M Geary) writes:
>>In article <1991Jun13.195238.29697@umbc3.umbc.edu> brian@umbc4.umbc.edu (Brian Cuthie) writes:
>>aIn article <1991Jun13.165313.10653@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> davis@po.CWRU.Edu writes:
>>>Unix is too complex, even with NeXTstep wrapped around it, for the
>>>average dolt to deal with...

>>  Are you kidding?  If the average dolt can use DOS, they can use
>>  NeXTStep.
>
>        Not really, because DOS was invented to keep dolts away
>        from everything else...

I work with a group of high-powered statisticians.  They are all
happy users of IBM PC's.  All they want is speed and power and a
machine that does what THEY want to do, WHEN they want to do it.
If they can find software that suits their purposes, they use it.
Since they're often on the cutting edge, they often have to write
their own.  Some prefer Fortran, some prefer APL, some want their
programs to interact and be object-oriented and they have learned
Turbo-Pascal and C++.  Do you call these people dolts?  Lately
a lot of them have been resisting the pressure to 'go Unix'.  The
plan is that there will be this big file-server somewhere and all
of us will have diskless workstations on our desks and there
will be a system operator who will be the only one who knows every-
thing and who will say, 'I'll try to get your data up tomorrow after
I do my backups.' and 'I'm taking the system down for maintenance at
two o'clock.  It shouldn't be down for more than a few hours.'  And
this sys op won't be happy here, because system-wise we'll be a really
small potatoes operation, so as soon as something better turns up we'll
be looking for a replacement.  WE'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE! IT WAS CALLED
MAINFRAME COMPUTING!  Say what you will about DOS, it liberated us
from the tyrants in the computer room.  And if you call us dolts, we'll
call you dorks!

Barbara Vaughan