Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!bcm!uhnix2!uhnix1!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AMIX?
Message-ID: <1917@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 88 12:24:03 GMT
References: <466@mailrus.cc.umich.edu> <863@gethen.UUCP> <391@brambo.UUCP> <740@trwspf.TRW.COM>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 37
Summary: There's no UNIX like real UNIX.

In article <740@trwspf.TRW.COM>, dragon@trwspf.TRW.COM (Roger Vossler) writes:
> Hi Gang,
>     Seems to me that a good shell and the usual collection of U**X
> utilities on top of a good multitasking kernel gives one MOST of
> "real unix" without all of the expense (resource, price, etc) and
> hassle.

Sorry, but it doesn't. For an individual running in a non-super account UNIX
is an inherently safe environment. There is very little you can do to the
system as a whole, and if you set up a number of accounts for yourself for
different tasks you can even set up firewalls at the file level. On the other
hand, AmigaDOS is an inherently unsafe environment.

I think it's exteremely unlikely that something like the Amiga, Mac, or PC
viruses could have been implemented on UNIX. Viruses are possible, yes (do
you decode your shar files by hand???), but unless you run one in super you
can't hurt that much... because in UNIX you can't get to anything except
via the operating system.

On the Amiga (or ANY other PC) on the other hand there is no protection. There
is no way to keep viruses or just clumsy users from deleting dh0: (or c:).

Another point is that UNIX is well-documented. Try to figure out just what
Execute() on mi Amiga does from the manual.

> why do we need "real unix"? If one wants to go that far, buy a Sun
> and have the real thing. Or have I missed something somewhere?

And the other point is that individuals shouldn't have to pay the price of a
small car for a decent UNIX system.

Don't get me wrong. AmigaDOS has strengths UNIX lacks. But it's not, and never
will be, UNIX.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva      `-_-'      ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- "Have you hugged your U wolf today?" ...!bellcore!tness1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These aren't mere opinions, these are *values*.