Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!linus!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!apollo!gallen
From: gallen@apollo.COM (Gary Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Re: AT&T Joining OSF
Message-ID: <3d999147.d8e9@apollo.COM>
Date: 1 Aug 88 15:19:00 GMT
References: <10474@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <5960008@hpcupt1.HP.COM> <5796@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <377@ksr.UUCP> <5838@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Reply-To: gallen@diskless.UUCP (Gary Allen)
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 37

In article <5838@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> kramerj@beasley.UUCP (Jack Kramer - OSU Gene Res) writes:
[......]
>Sorry about the typo.  Does this mean that anyone can use the VMS source
>as a basis of a port to any other machine and then sell it just like it's
>done with UNIX?  This certainly is news to me.  I wonder why there aren't
>as many other machines running VMS as there are DEC machines running UNIX.

Perhaps it's because VMS is/was not designed to be a portable OS and DEC
doesn't sell it that way. This was hardly unusual in the days that VAX/VMS
was born. In those days, OS's were written by hardware vendors to help
sell their hardware; they were never considered to be a seperate product.
And unless I'm mistaken, that applies to just about every other OS other
than UNIX.

Of course it's easy to criticize in hindsight. Let's all get together in
about 10 years and look at the dumb things you're doing today.

>I certainly hope that the OSF confusion tactic works as well as all 
>previous IBM and DEC attempts to eliminate UNIX and any other non-
>proprietary OS's.  

Just because YOU find something confusing doesn't make it a "confusion tactic"
(after all, you don't understand why VMS doesn't run on non-DEC hardware :)).
OSF has made it (I think, reasonably) clear what their intentions are and
why. If you don't like that, hey, what can I say? If OSF produces something
you like, I think you'll think OSF ok. If they don't, they won't stay around.
I hope that sounds like a reasonable compromise to you?

Eliminate UNIX? You mean compete against UNIX? Excuse me, we didn't realize
that it was a sacred cow.

Gary Allen
Apollo Computer
Chelmsford, MA
{decvax,yale,umix}!apollo!gallen

"Two half-baths don't add up to a full-bath."