Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 beta 4/12/84; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!hao!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.jokes Subject: Re: May be offensive to UNIX Users - PLEASE read! Message-ID: <2093@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 11-Jul-84 19:21:52 EDT Article-I.D.: rlgvax.2093 Posted: Wed Jul 11 19:21:52 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 14-Jul-84 01:24:11 EDT References: <2404@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 139 > Q: How many support people are needed to maintain a UNIX system? > A: 3 support people for every user! We have ~50 people on our current VAX system, and about 10 at the most do *PART TIME* support work. Most of us do so in conjunction with OS development work. > Q: How many support people are needed to run UNIX efficiently > A: None! It never has, never will! "Never has, never will"? Anybody have a copy Bill Joy's rebuttal to Kashtan's VMS vs. UNIX comparison paper handy? > Q: How come UNIX is so bulky? > A: Patches,patches,patches! Have you seen a copy of the VMS System Dispatch recently? > Q: How do you close a file on UNIX and not have it bomb the Device driver? > A: Don't open it to begin with. We've yet to see a close bomb a driver here.... And, to quote from the VMS System Dispatch: OPERATING SYSTEM: VAX/VMS V2.1 PRODUCT: VAX/VMS COMPONENT: MAGTAPE ACP DISMOUNT HANGS TAPE DRIVER PROBLEM STATEMENT Tape will not dismount if the user does not have privileges for the tape which he mounted. > Q: How come the "TR" command on UNIX is very important? > A: Because its the only command that works really well! No comment. > Q: How do you do inter-job communication on UNIX? > A: Call the phone company; they wrote it they should be able to > Communicate with it. The phone company will tell you to use the "msgget", "msgop", and "msgctl" system calls, which permit you to send and receive messages from message queues. > Q: Will UNIX run anywhere? > A: No, but it will crash anytime anywhere... No comment. > Q: Whats the difference between Guppys and Children processes on UNIX? > A: Guppys eat their children, on UNIX the Children can eat the parents! If you are complaining that a child process can send a signal to its parent process that causes the parent process to exit, so what? > Q: What do you have when you run UNIX on a VAX? > A: A "Bad PDP-11/40" since UNIX ignores the FPA and virtual memory Bullshit. Our UNIX doesn't ignore the virtual memory. Please explain what "ignore the FPA" means. I've heard the claim *TWICE* that "UNIX ignores the FPA on the VAX." The C compiler generates floating point instructions - a VAX with or without an FPA will execute them (that's why it's called a Floating Point *Accelerator*, not a Floating Point *Processor*). > Here is a quote from an article by D. M. Ritchie and K. Thompson, two of > the original developers of Unix. This article comes from vol 57, no. 6 of > the Bell System Technical Journal. This particular volume of the B.S.T.J. is > considered by many to be the Unix "Bible". In this quote they are talking > about the way that the file system handles (or refuses to handle) data > contention:... > We take the view that locks are neither necessary nor sufficient, > in our environment, to prevent interference between users of the > same file. They are unnecessary because we are not faced with > large, single-file data bases maintained by independent > processes (gak! - Ed). Did RSX-11M, in its first incarnation, support RMS record locking? I suspect not. There are implementations of record locking for UNIX; they were done because people were putting "large, single-file data bases maintained by independent processes" under UNIX. > VMS may not be a perfect OS, but it sure beats an OS with many > fatal bugs. VMS has no fatal bugs? Come on now. To quote the VAX System Dispatch: OPERATING SYSTEM: VAX/VMS V3.3 PRODUCT: VAX/VMS COMPONENT: RMS HALT in kernel mode due to an incorrect RMS patch PROBLEM STATEMENT Occasionally, the system can halt... RESPONSE This halt is caused by an incorrect patch to RMS in VMS Version 3.1... > VMS will live forever! Yup, just like TOPS-20 will. After all, the new Jupiter top-of-the-line DECSystem-20 will run it, won't it? On the other hand, if you want reasonable price/performance, you won't be able to use VMS; the Pyramid 90x and the CCI Power 6/32, to name two computers with considerably superior P/P ratios to the 11/780 *and* 11/785, don't run VMS and aren't bloody likely to. > P.S. Feel free to reply (If your version of UNIX can stay up long enough). $ uptime 6:51pm up 13 days, 23:25, 11 users, load average: 2.31, 2.37, 2.51 Next question. Geepers, I'm surprised nobody's dragged up the old "UNIX is horrible and user- unfriendly because its command names are so *cryptic*!" one yet. Yup. Unlike such user-friendly OSes like CP/M and (pre-DCL, anyway) RT-11/RSX-11M/etc., which use the incredibly sensible and user-friendly syntax PIP TOFILE=FROMFILE to copy FROMFILE to TOFILE, UNIX uses the cryptic syntax cp fromfile tofile Oh well, I guess this sort of crud keeps coming back, like a bad penny. Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy