Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!nucsrl!gore
From: gore@eecs.nwu.edu (Jacob Gore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXT impressions
Message-ID: <12670016@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Feb 89 20:30:35 GMT
References: <888@fornax.UUCP>
Organization: Northwestern U, Evanston IL, USA
Lines: 52

/ comp.sys.next / mcdonald@fornax.UUCP (Ken Mcdonald) / Feb 19, 1989 /
>... you pay (in terms of hardware necessary) for the ability
>to use UNIX, even if you hardly use any of its features, and the vast majority
>of UNIX users don't.

Sure they do.  Thay may not know it, though.  For example, when they
recompile their program after adding 1 to an array index, or adding a
variable, or changing a variable from single-precision to double precision,
and their program still compiles OK (hmmm... what lousy excuse for an
OS could he be talking about... :-)

>Most people I know who use UNIX ... would probably be far
>happier with a much simpler system that did basic computation and networking.
>The exceptions to this rule seem to be UNIX support people--hackers,
>gurus,etc. 
>Which raises an interesting question about the ultimate utility of UNIX, but
>hey, I'll leave that for another time.

Stop.  The question you raise is CRUCIAL, and you need to understand the
answer, or you will continue to be confused on the "Why UNIX?" issue.

Because it's us "support people" that people who think they need a
"simpler" system (read: "A system that does exactly what I need, exactly
the way I need it done, and with no overhead for stuff I don't use") run to
whenever some "simple" thing doesn't work on their "simple" system.  And it
usually turns out that getting the "simple" thing to work on their "simple"
system requires a major rewrite of their system.

To people who can be self-sufficient with whatever system they use, I NEVER
give advice to switch systems (though I may advise them to investigate
alternatives).  But people who expect things to just do what they expect
them to do, and expect others to make it so... well, they really SHOULD
listen to the choices that those "others" would make when choosing their
environment (hardware, system software AND application software).

So even if I accept your argument that UNIX is useless to end-users (and I
do not accept it), the fact that it eases the job of people who have to
keep a large number of stations working and a large number of users
satisfied is an enourmous plus in its favor.

[Very self-constrained flame:]

If you could only imagine how tempting the proximity of Lake Michigan is
every time I have to deal with a "simple" problem that has a very hairy,
time-consuming solution (if it has one at all) -- and I know damned well
that the problem wouldn't exist at all if this wasn't a PC in front of me,
running MS-DOS!  (Oops, I gave away the name of the lousy excuse for an
operating system :-)  If we could afford alternatives, we would probably
have very computer-literate fish in the lake by now.

Jacob Gore				Gore@EECS.NWU.Edu
Northwestern Univ., EECS Dept.		{oddjob,gargoyle,att}!nucsrl!gore