Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!eos!eugene
From: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Religious OS arguments
Message-ID: <2685@eos.UUCP>
Date: 21 Feb 89 22:09:49 GMT
Reply-To: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Calif.
Lines: 45

A Modest Proposal

With all this current debate about who's OS is better, and what's
optimal for their special kind of hardware.  I think the pundits
of various OSes should be forced to port their OSes to all the
different kinds of computers out there.  They should not be allowed
to sell hardware which does not have their OS running on different
machines.  Think of it, hundreds of programmers porting OS/360/MVT
to the Modcomp Classic, Microsoft programmers porting PC/DOS to
ETA-10s.  VMS running on the Unisys 1100/90, CTSS running on the
IBM/PC.  Do you know what a V73 is?  [Am I forgetting your favorite
bizarre combination of OS to machine?]  We will be in the gravy forever
(See the deal the philosophers made with Deep Thought).
These von Neuman uniprocessors don't differ that much.

We Unics should encourage these other OSes to prove their manhood
and port their OSes and get them out of our hair.  Just think
you too can relive the 60s.  American Operating System Stand.
Yes, revive the 60s on the hardware of the 80s, using OSes of the 70s
and 60s, writing in languages of the 50s, in algorithms of the 90s,
1890s that is.

We know there are EXEC*1100, RSTS, NOS, MVT, et al programmers out there.
The goal is to get them bogged down, smile and nod your head,
encourage fast feature-itis: add graphics,
add porting to N-different architectures, add light weight processes
(oh, wait a minute! that's a useful concept).  Let's encourage them to
dig big pits.

Think of it!

Another gross generalization from

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
  resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
  "Mailers?! HA!", "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology."
  {uunet,hplabs,ncar,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene
  "Post follow ups.  Contribute to network noise."

The future currently lies in loosely coupled distributed algorithms
like the factoring done at DEC.

"I believe that 2/3 of the Pentagon should be forced to write each other
memos in long hand. And let the other 1/3 get on with doing work."
	-- Hyman Rickover