Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!pacbell!ames!oliveb!pyramid!uccba!hal!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Re: Help us defend against VMS!
Message-ID: <7546@ncoast.UUCP>
Date: 26 Mar 88 17:52:19 GMT
References: <867@unmvax.unm.edu> <2329@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery)
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: Cleveland Public Access UN*X, Cleveland, Oh
Lines: 24

As quoted from <2329@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> by pes@ux63.bath.ac.uk (Smee):
+---------------
| One of the more popular defenses of Unix is that 'well, it's easy to
| provide user-friendly tailored environments'.  I'd say that ideally you
| shouldn't need to.  (I think that the goal of Computer People should be
| a system that *IS* friendly to everyone, rather than a system which can
| be made to be friendly to everyone.  Tricky?  Sure.  That's why we get
| paid so well.  A tailorable system -- like Unix -- is a good first
| step, but it's ONLY a first step.)
+---------------

To misquote Heinlein, "One man's user-friendly system is another man's belly
laugh."  Think about it.  How can you be user-friendly to *everyone*?  The
beauty of Unix is that you can give user A a VMS-like environment and user B
a pseudo-Macintosh, etc.  Whereas Eunice is legendary and I doubt that VMS
could support a Mac-ish front end.  (I might be wrong on that last.)

You are, however, correct on that first step.  The question is, however, how
should the front-ends be distributed?  Should they come with Unix?  Should
they be add-on packages, perhaps by third parties (this is the way it is
now)?  Maybe some other way would be better?
-- 
	      Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc
       {well!hoptoad,uunet!hnsurg3,cbosgd,sun!mandrill}!ncoast!allbery