Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <1426@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 88 08:08:36 GMT
References: <153@mozart.UUCP> <1351@sugar.UUCP> <9591@tekecs.TEK.COM> <2947@killer.UUCP>
Sender: karl@sugar.UUCP
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 39

In article <2947@killer.UUCP>, jfh@killer.UUCP (The Beach Bum) writes:
> In article <1393@sugar.UUCP>, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
> > A home computer should cost no more than a small fraction of the price of
> > a small car. I'll amend my statement to read that GNU can not run on any
> > machine that any significant numbers of individuals can hope to own.

> My home machine cost more than my Fiero.  I make a living off of this
> business, so why not have a machine worth writing home about?  Does
> 5900 Dhrystones sound impressive?  My first system was $8,000 about 6
> years ago.  The return on the investment isn't possible to figure, but
> I think having a Unix box in the bedroom helped get the last few jobs.

That's not a home computer... that's a business computer. You just happen to
be operating a business in your home. I know a few people with that sort
of setup. I'm not one of them.

> > 
> > A 20 megabyte drive and controller for the IBM-PC costs on the order of a
> > couple of hundred dollars. A megabyte of DRAMS costs a substantial fraction
> > of that.

> Who needs all that new junk.  Shared memory,
> semaphores, process control, yick!

I could use all that junk, if they could do it right.

Neither System V nor BSD do.

I wish one or the other would sit down and think about consistency, efficiency,
and the principle of least astonishment. Whoever did it would win big...

> "Don't Have an Oil Well? ... Then Buy One!"

Shouldn't that be...

"Don't have an oil well? Count your blessings!"
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.