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From: rb@ccivax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Amiga OS (vs Unix) Liscencing?
Message-ID: <374@ccivax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 23:17:39 EST
Article-I.D.: ccivax.374
Posted: Wed Feb  5 23:17:39 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 07:10:42 EST
References: <11448@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <142@atux01.UUCP> <357@ccivax.UUCP> <618@amiga.amiga.UUCP>
Reply-To: rb@ccivax.UUCP (What's in a name ?)
Organization: CCI Telephony Systems Group,  Rochester NY
Lines: 81

In article <618@amiga.amiga.UUCP> bruceb@amiga.UUCP (Bruce Barrett) writes:
>In article <357@ccivax.UUCP> rb@ccivax writes: (edited)

>	   fd = fopen("CON:10/10/300/150/Title of window", "w+");

	   I like this open feature, glad you pointed it out.
	   Can you also do something like:

	   box(TopLeftCorner,BottomRightCorner,fd) ;

	   maybe those early postings from readers who didn't know
	   you had a graphic version of standard I/O.

>>  The ability to add new DEVICE DRIVERS to a running system...
>	You can add device drivers without changing any of the kernel or
>	kickstart code.

	Good!  Can someone write a driver that is the equivelant of a
	pipe?

>> OS-9 lets you share "modules" like the floating point library,
>>graphics libraries, and the like (they are mounted like drivers).
>>What about Intuition?
>	We support shared devices and libraries.  At the moment the 
>	linked floating point support, printf, ... is not shared.

	Sounds like this is more of a matter of time, rather than
	lack of forsight.

>>Only what you need is in core.
>	Much of what you need (or don't) is in "ROM".  "loadable" devices 
>	and libraries which you are not using (including: serial, parallel, 
>	printer, speech, and any custom devices and libraries) are loaded
>	and removed on an "as needed" basis.

	I assume the 'hooks' to the "ROM" are somewhere in RAM so they
	can be re-vectored if necessary?

>Hope this answers some of your questions.  As you can see we do things
>differently than Unix.  Not necessarily better or worse.
>Bruce Barrett, Commodore-Amiga, Inc.

From the looks of things, there have been some good choices made.  
Seems like there's the best of Mac combined with most of the best
of UNIX.  Hopefully, when the cheerleaders get over the initial
'contempt prior to investigation', some of the Amiga system will
be incorporated into some new 'Defacto Standards'.  Any plans
on liscencing Intuition?

About the only variable still in question is portability.  Appearently
Commodore-Amiga would like to corner developers into writing source
which is exclusively for their machine.  IBM plays that game real
well.  Apple seems to be less successful in their MAC line.
DEC doesn't seem to worry so much about that sort of thing, they even
have their own version of UNIX.

How many people are using a VAX to get this?  Is it running UNIX?

Probably the main reason for the 'OS-9 and Unix static' is that neither
Tripos nor Intuition/AmigaDos were familiar to US programmers.  Seems
like people get nervous when the same company does both the hardware
and the software.  Maybe it's the scars from the mutually exclusive
characteristics of Apple/Atari/Commodore and other 6502 machines and
even the TRS-80 Lines.  CP/M and MS/Dos machines, though grossly
inferior, were being considered the "Business Systems", while the
"proprietary boxes", with graphics and even some better software
were being considered "toys".  Having been burned three times, I'd like
to know that I can "Hedge my bet's" before I go for double or nothing.

I could care less about IBM compatibility, what I would like though
is an OS that would let me buy/run/sell the same application software on
the Mac, Amiga, and the ST without having to spring for a three
separate copies.  Or at least be able to excange data between the
three without having to physically connect the machines
(modem, comm-lines...).  There are situations where each would be
desirable (We already have a Mac, but not much software, Amiga's
are powerful enough to do presentation graphics, and ST's are
cheap and 'good enough for photo-copy stuff') but not if they
continue to 'snub' each other.  I'd hate to see the 68000 lose out
to the 80386, but it might if the Mac/Amiga/ST people won't play
ball with each other.  Has IBM announced their '386 machine yet?