Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!umix!umich!mibte!mcf!shan
From: shan@mcf.UUCP (Sharan Kalwani)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: "It's snake oil, absolute snake oil"
Message-ID: <183@mcf.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 88 03:38:02 GMT
Reply-To: shan@mcf.UUCP (Sharan Kalwani)
Organization: Michigan Cancer Foundation, Detroit, MI 48201
Lines: 42
Keywords: Ken Olsen DEC UNIX


	Just when you thought the latest round of VMS vs. UNIX wars
was tapering off, now comes this :-). I just came across the latest issue
of Computer Systems News, YAITR (Yet Another Industry Trade Rag) and saw
the above qoute. I append the following lines taken from the March 14 issue
for your amusement:
 --- start of quote  --

	Asked to comment on the recent uproar over the AT&T and
	Sun Microsystems Inc. Unix development alliance, Olsen
	without mentioning particular companies, likened some vendors
	of Unix products to "snake oil" salesmen and said the claim
	that Unix will resolve incompatibility problems within
	multi-vendor networks is "a naive idea."

	"It still won't resolve the problem of interchangeability", he
	said, adding that the operating system is just one of the 
	several components needed to achieve compatibility. He cited
	windowing ability and communications protocols as two other major
	components. 

	Olsen went on to call Unix "one of the most proprietary operating
	systems". But he expressed suport for standards and development
	of the POSIX interface, saying that will resolve the problem
	of making disparate operating systems compatible.

	"But that's the unimportant part of making things interchangeable",
	he said. Compatibility "doesn't come by stamping Unix on the label.
	It doesn't solve everything; there is no magic. It's snake oil,
	absolute snake oil," he said.

 -- end of quote ---

 I leave to you folks to let us know what you think of the above.

----
Usual disclaimers apply.  Unix is a regd. trademark of AT&T, etc, etc.
-- 
sharan "alf" kalwani.  110 east warren detroit mi 48201. (313) 833-0710 x411
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