Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!uwmcsd1!uwmacc!hobbes!root
From: root@hobbes.UUCP (John Plocher)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: A different View of the value of OS/2 - it's better than Unix
Message-ID: <230@hobbes.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Sep-87 17:44:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: hobbes.230
Posted: Mon Sep 21 17:44:56 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Sep-87 01:36:06 EDT
References: <494@parcvax.Xerox.COM> <961@looking.UUCP> <498@parcvax.Xerox.COM> <1344@van-bc.UUCP> <13212@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: root@hobbes.UUCP (John Plocher)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: U of Wisconsin - Madison  Spanish Department
Lines: 38

+---- lots of DOS/Unix "talk" deleted ----+

The biggest difference I've found in the DOS -vs- Unix war is that I can set
up a development environment (WP, C, debugging...) on a 10Mb hard disk under
DOS and still have about 8 Meg free for my programs.  A similarly configured
Unix system wouldn't even fit on 10Mb!  Why should Joe Dosuser bother
with "disk hog" Unix?  What can Unix do that is worth burning all that
disk space for?

In the user's perspective there is little (read NO) difference between
WordStar under DOS and ditroff under Unix - they both produce "word processing"
output.  The same thing goes for Turbo C -vs- pcc/lint/dbx and Brief -vs- emacs.

Besides, Sidekick and Superkey and Procomm and Lotus 123 don't work under
Unix.  1/2 :-(

On Unix, things can change without your doing anything:  Log files get bigger,
spool directories fill up, etc.  Sure, it's a result of multi-tasking, but
it confuses the hell out of people who panic when they see two copies of
their report on a directory listing (never mind the fact that one of them
ends in ".BAK" :-)

Don't get me wrong, I use Unix (with DosMerge) because I know what it can
do for my productivity, but I don't expect ANY of the users I deal with to
come anywhere near the level I need to be at to keep the system running!

Jane Novice can keep her DOS machine going with NO maintenance.  NONE.
Come in in the morning, turn it on;  work on files during the day; copy
everything to a floppy (copy file.123 a:); and turn it off before going home.
Most PC users don't even bother with copying to a floppy :-(.

Try that with Unix!  I find myself spending about 20 minutes a day maintaining
each of out Unix boxes PLUS 1/2 an hour extra on Fridays doing backups.  I
shudder to think what things would be like if I took off for 2 weeks and
no one was here to look after things!

-- 
John Plocher uwvax!geowhiz!uwspan!plocher  plocher%uwspan.UUCP@uwvax.CS.WISC.EDU