Newsgroups: comp.society.development Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Low-cost Usenet (Re: usenet in Nepal) Message-ID: Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC References: <1991Jun14.100804.4867@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991Jun15.023819.5589@newshost.anu.edu.au> <1991Jun18.065605.6955@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1991Jun21.231902.24754@newshost.anu.edu.au> Date: Mon, 24 Jun 91 22:20:50 GMT In article <1991Jun21.231902.24754@newshost.anu.edu.au> cmf851@anu.oz.au (Albert Langer) writes: > >1) Not MS-DOS. > >building on an MS-DOS base is a recipie for > >failure or immediate obsolescence. > But with phone lines the dominant cost, and a requirement for > cheap connection and use, surely an architecture for developing > countries should focus even more than in the developed world > on making full use of the users own PCs. That doesn't imply MS-DOS, except as a way to boot a better system. Look at it this way, DOS users are used to running one program at a time. The Nusenet operating system can just be seen as such a program. What should it be? POSIX compatible, for sure! Why not MINIX? Even better would be a new baby UNIX clone. The mechanisms UNIX V7 uses to handle multitasking, drivers and the like are unsexy, but they're well known. And they're pretty efficient on small systems: V7 on the PC was faster for some stuff than MS-DOS... MINIX, with its elegant structure, is slower. But I have to back Kent's comments on MS-DOS. Depending on it as a platform will just give use another Fidonet. If you're going to do that, why the hell not just start with Fido? It works, it's installed worldwide, and it's certainly cheap! > X400 [...] Let's not get diverted into > re-inventing sheels that international standards > organizations have already invented.) But X400 is an overly complex system. What's wrong with 16-bit clean RFC822? -- Peter da Silva; Ferranti International Controls Corporation; +1 713 274 5180; Sugar Land, TX 77487-5012; `-_-' "Have you hugged your wolf, today?"