Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!cbema!las From: cbema!las@cbnews.ATT.COM (cbema!las) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Why unix doesn't catch on Message-ID: <6932@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 26 May 89 18:53:30 GMT References: <7632@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <256@jwt.UUCP> <2496@bucsb.UUCP> <274@tree.UUCP> <552@rna.UUCP> <13546@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <10571@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <4666@drivax.UUCP> Reply-To: cbema!las@cbnews.ATT.COM (Larry A. Shurr) Distribution: usa Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, OH (actually an AGS consultant) Lines: 47 In article <4666@drivax.UUCP> alexande@drivax.uucp.UUCP (Mark Alexander) writes: >In article <10571@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> tim@cit-vax.UUCP (Timothy L. Kay) writes: >>According to the introduction to _Inside OS/2_, >>this guy Letwin (the author of the book and "architect" of OS/2) is >>somebody Bill Gates met at a hacker conference and hired immediately. >>I doubt that he has any formal OS experience. >The introduction does mention that Letwin wrote an operating system >for Heath. Does that count as "formal OS experience?" I think so. >This was probably HDOS, which, according to a friend who used it >for a while, was a pretty nice OS, quite a bit more advanced than It was HDOS and HDOS was not only nice, it was truly amazing. Looking down from (what I thougt were) the lofty heights of DecSystem-10, I deigned to forgive CP/M its primitive nature owing to the small-and- primitive 8080 environment. Then I encountered HDOS and found myself looking out from a far less imposing vantage. I was amazed at what the small box could do. Nice job, Gordon. >CP/M. But CP/M was already in much wider use elsewhere, so HDOS >didn't catch on. Sort of the same situation OS/2 is in right now, >except that OS/2 has better chance of catching on, like it or not. HDOS was tied to the Heath name and the Heath "engine" (forgotten the name of that computer now). it need not have been, but Heath was in the business of selling hardware, not software, so their (nice) offerings were Heath-specific - understandable but unfor- tunate. CP/M was more generally available and cheap - you could even get it and bring it up on your home-built. This gave CP/M more access to the (very limited) available market. When software products appeared for CP/M, it was further boosted to prominence. Meanwhile HDOS, North Star DOS, and what-did-they-call-it DOS for the SOL "Terminal Computer" remained hobbyist (pure :-)), with relatively little or no commercial usage. (I had a friend in Houston who tried to make a go of selling commercial systems based on Heath and HDOS. Didn't really go anywhere.) If only HDOS were MS-DOS' precursor rather than CP/M! regards, Larry -- Signed: Larry A. Shurr (cbema!las@att.ATT.COM or att!cbema!las) Clever signature, Wonderful wit, Outdo the others, Be a big hit! - Burma Shave (With apologies to the real thing. The above represents my views only.) (Please note my mailing address. Mail sent directly to cbnews doesn't make it.)