Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!umd5!decuac!felix!zemon
From: bin@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Snake oil
Message-ID: <33327@felix.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 88 23:14:05 GMT
References: <32296@felix.UUCP>
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Reply-To: bin@rhesus.primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral)
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> Of course, I am happy that I have now been informed that Digital now regards
> Ultrix as an equal partner with VMS.  In fact, my local service engineer is
> going to go to an Ultrix school in a few weeks.  Maybe when he gets back
> he'll know how to log onto my machine.  What I don't understand, is why Ken
> Olsen hasn't been informed of this new corporate policy.  (Or if he has, why
> he insists on referring to Unix as snake oil.)

I'm happy, too.  But my understanding of what Olsen said was not that Unix
itself is snake oil (he has on other occasions made mention of the equal
support as a Good Thing now offered by DEC), but that all the noise about
standardization is snake oil.  Perhaps that is understandable given the
debacle with the Pentagon and POSIX, with DEC the loser.  Sour grapes?