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From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: Day #1 of Wash Conference
Message-ID: <5085@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Sun, 8-Mar-87 23:14:19 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.5085
Posted: Sun Mar  8 23:14:19 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Mar-87 19:06:53 EST
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 32


Was I at a different conference?

It seemed to me that the meta-theme of day #1 was to point out that
we're all coming to some agreement that UNIX needs to get past its
current paradigm and onto the future (present?)

I think that's what all that talk about things like the MacIntosh file
system (re: Mike O'Dell) window systems, networking etc. and the
progress other systems have made in these areas.

The current "problem" (well, let's say dilemma) is standards vs
innovation. This is no small matter. How do we let a system heralded
for its standardization and predictability from hardware system to
hardware system grow into the diverse environments we are currently
confronted with?

It's great that UNIX runs on everything from a PC to a Cray-II,
super-workstation to IBM mainframe and every other dimension.

It's another thing to say that the concepts inherent in "standard
UNIX" are modelling these environments.

To paraphrase a comment once said about Fortran:

I don't know what operating system people will be running in 10 years
	But I am sure they will call it UNIX.

I think that's what the talks were about. Go look at the conference
papers again.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University