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From: mrose@NRTC-GREMLIN.ARPA (Marshall Rose)
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: A defense of GOSIP
Message-ID: <21718.542829929@nrtc-gremlin.arpa>
Date: Sun, 15-Mar-87 13:26:15 EST
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Posted: Sun Mar 15 13:26:15 1987
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>	(maybe we should continue this argument on INFO-OSI which no doubt
>	everyone reads on their X.400/OSI systems anyhow.)

    Nah.  As has been pointed out in the past by Jon, these guys don't
    even use computers.  Seriously, it's the stupidest catch-22 I've
    ever heard of:  you can't start an electronic mail
    interest group for use by OSI zealots because either:

	- they don't have working X.400 systems

	- their systems don't talk to each other yet

	- they won't agree to use one organization's system for
	  political reasons

	- they won't use the ARPAnet mailsystem (even though they
	  probably all could get legitimate access) because even though
	  it works it's not OSI and they can't use it 'cause that would
	  be admitting that the ARPAnet stuff works 

    You think I'm kidding, I'm not!  This has happened to two or three
    times to my knowledge, and quite frankly I'm not even tied in that
    well to the OSI bunch.  Of course the gag is that any of these four
    problems can be "fixed" easily:

	- you can now get X.400 systems on just about every machine you
	  listed (true!) except perhaps the lisp engines

	- they could connect up to a common carrier

	- they could grow up

	- they could grow up and admit that, for the moment, TCP/IP and
 	  the ARPAnet works much better than OSI does.

 Croissants or donuts?  I'd settle for hot water!

/mtr

    ps:  I'm out the door for the Monterey conference, so my responses
    to everyone's flames/cheers will be delayed by a few days...