Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!jarthur!polyslo!jdudeck
From: jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Stoopid *nix freaks!
Message-ID: <25e6d6ed.26a3@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Date: 24 Feb 90 18:48:13 GMT
References: <90052.182144CMH117@psuvm.psu.edu> <6937@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM> <16155@smunews.UUCP>
Reply-To: jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck)
Organization: Cal Poly State University -- San Luis Obispo
Lines: 55


Somebody in this group wrote:
>...do you have any clue to _WHY_ UN*X people hate VM/VMS?

Please don't ever put VM and VMS together in the same category.  
Just the thought of it makes me *Barf*.

My question is: Do you have any clue why VMS people hate Unix?

>and now for something completely stoopid...
>1/2 * PS = PS/2 (half a computer)

I'm inclinded to agree.
>    +
>1/2 * OS = OS/2 (half an operating system)

Now here I disagree.  The reason that OS/2 hasn't caught on is mainly
due to the strange quirk of the history of RAM prices.  If the US government
hadn't gotten the Japanese to restrict exporting RAM to the US, driving
up RAM prices just at the moment OS/2 was ready to take off, there wouldn't
have been a machine sold since 1985 with less than 4 megs in it, and we
would ALL be running OS/2.

If the market had not been squeezed off for larger system memory,
it would have driven much faster development of application software
as well as getting OS/2 itself finished and the world would be a much
better place today.

OS/2 is the first REAL operating system for personal computers.  
The only possible exception would be AmigaDos.  I don't understand why
people badmouth OS/2, when it has everything that everyone has been
asking for in a system, and that the market has been providing via
monstrous kludges such as loading piles of TSR's, and other monstrosities
to try to build a multitask environment over DOS.  

If the objection is cost, well, the answer to that is the market system
that balances supply, demand, and price.  The price would be lower now
if there were more buyers.  There would be more buyers if RAM was cheaper.

If the objection is its size and complexity, I would suggest that you
do an objective compaison of it against any alternative, keeping in
mind all the capabilities of OS/2.

If the objection is the lack of multiuser capabilities, remember that
OS/2 is designed to meet the need of single users in a networked 
environment.  Each user is supposed to have his own cpu running OS/2.
In a networked client/server arrangement, full multiuser support is
provided for shared files, etc.

If the objection is the lack of software, all I can say is, I, too am
unhappy that OS/2 isn't doing better in the marketplace, but the problem
is not with OS/2, it is a question of economics.  Maybe it still will
catch on.  I think it will depend on how smart Microsoft is in the near
future.  They may have already blown their chances.


-- 
John Dudeck                           "You want to read the code closely..." 
jdudeck@Polyslo.CalPoly.Edu             -- C. Staley, in OS course, teaching 
ESL: 62013975 Tel: 805-545-9549          Tanenbaum's MINIX operating system.