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From: pratt%navajo@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.works
Subject: Mishkin on Unix
Message-ID: <15058@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jan-84 13:36:00 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15058
Posted: Wed Jan  4 13:36:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Jan-84 02:28:40 EST
Lines: 22

From:  Vaughan Pratt <pratt@navajo>

I thought Henry Spencer's comeback to Nat Mishkin's latest round of
criticisms of Unix [V4#2] very a propos: Unix is ubiquitous, standard,
and good.  I would add a fourth quality: Unix is adaptable.

The longterm experience with Unix has been that it is possible for Unix
to adapt to new technology.  This has been demonstrated for >16-bit
addressing, virtual memory, interactive graphics, laser printers,
networking, and distributed file systems, to name a few items.  The
adaptation of Unix to most of these technologies has been a nontrivial
effort, and in some cases, notably DFS, an ongoing effort that has
resisted smooth exporting.  However Unix has demonstrated beyond all
question that it is not a static system, with respect to either porting
to other machines (the source of its ubiquity) or its adaptability to
new technology.

If you think Unix is a PDP-11-dweller then that makes you a cave-dweller.
Unix has left its cave.  I am confident that it will leave its grass hut in
due course.  Unix has great survival potential.

--Vaughan Pratt