Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!noao!arizona!lm
From: lm@arizona.edu (Larry McVoy)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Unix vs. OS/2 (was RE: Pournelle on Unix)
Message-ID: <3478@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: 17 Jan 88 19:34:12 GMT
References: <11156@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: lm@megaron.arizona.edu.UUCP (Larry McVoy)
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson
Lines: 24

In article <11156@brl-adm.ARPA> GUTHERY%ASC%sdr.slb.com@RELAY.CS.NET (guthery%asc@sdr.slb.com) writes:
>1) Here are some O/S goodies that stock OS/2 (now playing on my desk)
> ....
>3) Kernel hacking is not research.  A Unix wizard who doesn't know what
>SIGOPS is loses five hit points.  Do the wizards sense extinction?

I'll bite on this one.   And maybe (but probably not) lay it to rest.  What we
are and have been seeing for some years now is a merging of the good ideas
from all operating systems into the new ones.  It's not a question of "Unix
vs. XYZ" rather "pipes vs. temp files".  However, most good ideas seem to 
come out of Unix (not surprisingly, it has a very demanding user base) and it
would do these young upstarts well to remember that.  On the other hand, these
ideas are usually a little rough...

I suspect that in 10 years or so it won't make a whole lot of difference what
machine you sit down to.  While there will always be some (useful) oddballs,
most OS's will have shells/tools that will make you feel at home right
away.  Many of those tools will be common across machine/OS boundaries.  So
what's the big deal, eh?

-- 
---
Larry McVoy	lm@arizona.edu or ...!{uwvax,sun}!arizona.edu!lm
		Use the force - read the source.