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From: stu@splut.UUCP (Stewart Cobb)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: sources to dvi2iff, version -1; tcp/ip for amiga
Message-ID: <156@splut.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Sep-87 14:41:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: splut.156
Posted: Sun Sep 20 14:41:59 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 23:46:16 EDT
References: <503@louie.udel.EDU> <1929@umd5.umd.edu> <775@sugar.UUCP>
Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, TX
Lines: 45
Summary: adding to the file system


There's been some discussion about adding TCP/IP, and other stuff, to
the Amiga file system.  I'd like to add an enthusiastic YES!

Philosophy:  One of the great things about UNIX is its simplicity.  In
the original UNIX, _everything_ was treated as a file, and there was one
hieracherial directory structure, where all files had a home.  Later
Unixes, designed by "others," have added features such as sockets.  It's
not clear to me that a socket is a better picture of a TCP stream than
a file with a few special ioctl()'s.  Putting a variety of devices into
the filesystem may sound bizzare, but it actually provides a clean
implementation from the user's point of view.  I would definitely
support this as the way to go on the Amiga.

   And while we're at it, can we get rid of device names and go to a
single filesystem?  I have always hated this minor-but-annoying
difference between Amiga and UNIX.

Practice:  A lot of Official Commodore People read this net.  Perhaps
one of them can give me an answer (Official or not) to this question:

   Why hasn't Commodore released the source to the operating system?

   Think about it.  They can't be afraid of pirates: everyone who has an
Amiga gets a copy of the OS, gratis.  Are they afraid someone would hack
it up into a better OS?  That would only sell them _more_ Amigas.  They
shouldn't be concerned about having multiple, perhaps buggy, new OS's
floating around, because everyone who has one of those also has the
original to fall back to.  If one of these new ones emerges as a new
"standard", so what?
    The very worst case I can think of for Commodore is that 1.2 is
replaced in everyday use by something else.  In that case, people buy
their new Amiga's, reformat the 1.2 disks, and continue on.  And who
cares?  That wouldn't cost Commmodore a dime -- they are in business to
sell hardware, not software.
    Can someone point out the flaw in my reasoning?  Or, perhaps, the
flaw in theirs?

software away.

-- 
| Stewart Cobb    (Hacking GNC for STS)  ... sun!housun!nuchat!splut!stu
| N5JXE @ KA5KTH or WB5BBW             ... seismo!soma!uhnix1 /
| << Insert the usual disclaimer >>  ... hoptoad!academ /
| Sattinger's Law:  It works better if you plug it in.