Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!deimos!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Predictable
Message-ID: <93400009@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 88 22:43:00 GMT
Lines: 22
Nf-ID: #R:<8811072222.AA00998@pinocchio.UU:-35:p.cs.uiuc.edu:93400009:000:983
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies    Nov 15 16:43:00 1988


Plant geneticists learned their lesson long before you're going
to learn yours.

It's not good to completely standardize O/S design, since this reduces
the gene pool, making most of the internet vulnerable to the same
attack.  This problem WOULD NOT have been so serious ten years ago.
Back then, only a small fraction (perhaps 10% ?) of the internet
computers were running UNIX.  ARPA hosts were running things like
TOPS, TENEX, TWENEX, VM, Level-6 O/S, RT-11, NOS, etc...

Sure, it's not a good argument for bashing *UNIX*, but it's a good
argument against making *ALL OS's* run exactly the same software.

Standardized high-yield crops are a great idea.  Until someday, a
plant virus or insect mutates, ruins the worldwide crop, and the whole
world STARVES.  The same goes for computer operating systems.


Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies