Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!parcvax!burton From: burton@parcvax.Xerox.COM (Philip M. Burton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: UNIX vs. OS/2 Message-ID: <520@parcvax.Xerox.COM> Date: Sat, 19-Sep-87 14:44:27 EDT Article-I.D.: parcvax.520 Posted: Sat Sep 19 14:44:27 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 21:26:43 EDT References: <494@parcvax.Xerox.COM> <961@looking.UUCP> <498@parcvax.Xerox.COM> <3834@zen.berkeley.edu> <3835@zen.berkeley.edu> Reply-To: burton@parcvax.xerox.com.UUCP (Philip M. Burton) Organization: Xerox PARC Lines: 103 In article <3835@zen.berkeley.edu> iverson@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Tim Iverson) writes: >In article <3834@zen.berkeley.edu> c60b-ia@buddy.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Sugih Jamin) writes: >[in response to an article comparing UNIX vs. OS/2 to MSDOS vs. CP/M] >>The difference is: MS-DOS can do *much* more than can CP/M. > >Not true. When it was first released, MSDOS couldn't fight its way out of >a wet paper bag (it still can't, but then it doesn't have to). > >> While OS/2 >>won't be that much more powerful than UNIX, if at all. > >You seem to have it wrong here (as well as not having listened to the >recent articles). UNIX, now, is much a more capable and complex OS than >OS/2 will be when it is released. Sigh .... UNIX will stills have lots of power that the average OS/2 user can't/won't use. After all, OS/2 is a single-user, multi-tasking system, and UNIX is a multi-user, multi-tasking system. There's a fundamental difference, or should be, between the two. As for the _single-user_ power of the two, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't that far apart. (Remember that I'm one of "those marketing types" so I can't back up that claim.) But I do remember seeing articles in BYTE magazine about 1982 comparing the then-new DOS with CP/M 86. One of the key points was that DOS was designed to be an easier upgrade from CP/M 80 than was CP/M 86, ironically. Something to do with BDOS calls, I think. Anyway, given the business opportunity, either IBM or Microsoft will have a conversion kit. Perhaps not for assembler (as for the CP/M -> DOS), but probably for C, Business Basic (widely used in UNIX business applications), and perhaps even Fortran. This conversion kit will scan your *NIX code and either do conversions automatically, or flag areas. Kind of a lint. Maybe we should call it "Mint", 'cause someone is going to make money off this products. Guys, there's a business opportunity here. Don't try to be King Canute, commanding the waves to stop. And don't think of yourself as a Quisling if you do this product. Just go with the flow. >Unfortunately, OS/2, when it finally reaches the distributor's shelves, >will already have greater popularity among PC users than all of the >flavors of UNIX combined. The big corporations will buy it because it >has been baptized and blessed by big blue (how's that for alliteration!) >and the little guys will eat it up because it allows them to keep abreast >of current innovation while maintaining their current investment in software, >which is considerable. This is the marketing point of view, and the one >that will win out in the wide world of users. > Sigh again... OS/2 will be embraced by Lotus, Ashton-Tate, Microsoft (which will obviously push all its applications), and damn near everyone else except perhaps the game/educational developers. Then the users will embrace OS/2. But, since these developers want to do what they think customers want, they will feel pushed into OS/2. Kind of circular, but that's how things often happen. >Developers are a whole different story; they don't need compatibility > >For development, then, UNIX seems to be the OS of choice, mostly because Yup!!! Just don't confuse your needs with those of Joe User. Unfornately, most people don't make that distinction. You really have to force yourself to think that way. >words of Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake." Ur, Mme. Antoinette met a very untimely end. Rather, why not quote the founder of Mama Leone, a famous Italian restaurant in New York City. She supposedly said something like, "Cook good food and give people plenty. They'll come." >- Tim Iverson (mailer wasted space) -- Philip Burton burton@parcvax.COM ...!hplabs!parcvax!burton Xerox Corp. preferred path: burton.osbunorth@xerox.COM 408 737 4635 ... usual disclaimers apply ...