Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!yale!husc6!mit-eddie!zrm From: zrm@eddie.MIT.EDU (Zigurd R. Mednieks) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: A Few Good Rumors... Keywords: A/UX Unix FullWriter Message-ID: <8184@eddie.MIT.EDU> Date: 17 Feb 88 17:09:37 GMT References: <1406@csib.csi.UUCP> <1575@uhccux.UUCP> <42143@sun.uucp> Reply-To: zrm@eddie.MIT.EDU (Zigurd R. Mednieks) Organization: MIT, EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA Lines: 47 In article <42143@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: > >Until the low end boxes have mac caliber software, it's going to be VERY >hard for them to go in after Mac environments. The low end unix box is good >for low end unix. It isn't terribly good for spreadsheets, word processing, >etc. The Mac2/AUX is probably more likely to suck out sales from the low end >of the other manufacturers simply because it can run both Unix AND Mac >stuff, not the other way around. I'd LOVE to have sun's at home. I use Mac's >because I can't do what I want to do on Sun's -- write and publish words. >They're great workstations, but vi/emacs/etc don't cut it. So I love my Sun >at work, I love my Macs at home. And I don't expect that to change any time >soon, except maybe I'll get lucky and go to Mac2's and A/UX at home.... > It's odd that Chuck would think this way. My feeling is that A/UX will not be popular with either Mac or Unix people. If I wanted a Unix, I would buy a Sun. I would not buy A/UX for my MacII. AU/X is not as good a Unix as a Sun and it is not as good a Macintosh as a Macintosh running its own OS. I would get LESS of Unix and Macintosh than I wanted. I wish Apple (or better yet, Sun) had developed a Unix add-in card with really good file system integration, so that I could have both systems without having to buy two boxes, and without having to deal with an Frankensteinian stitched-together combination of Unix and the Mac OS. With Sun's recent accord with AT&T I see no reason to settle for less than what is the acknowledged standard in Unix OSs, and I see no reason to ask for compatibility woes for my Macintosh software. Lastly, I don't have a need to apply Macintosh software to Unix files by running that software on a Unix system. I would prefer to use a network and take advantage of the really very good provisions for foreign file systems built into both Unix and the Mac OS. I would also bet that A/UX will be at least one step behind both the Mac OS and SunOS in acquiring the latest and best features of both those systems. And what will happen when Apple's next-generation OS debuts? Will they fold that into Unix as well? It all seems like much more hassle than the it is worth. So when can I order the SPARC board for my Mac II? -Zigurd -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zigurd Mednieks MURSU Corporation (617)424-0146 25 Exeter Street Boston, MA 02116