Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!motcsd!xdos!doug
From: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Stability of Commodore/Amiga
Keywords: Unix, Amiga, OS/2, DOS
Message-ID: <676@xdos.UUCP>
Date: 3 Mar 90 21:23:21 GMT
References: <476087196@deimos.cis.ksu.edu> <19000039@attcc.UUCP> <2840@mtuni.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: Hunter Systems, Mountain View CA (Silicon Valley)
Lines: 47

In article <2840@mtuni.ATT.COM> psu@mtuni.ATT.COM (Paul Siu) writes:
>According to survey (I think it was Infoworld), DOS may fade away in the
>future, but OS/2 is probably going to be the next dominate operating system
>in business. Unix will probably be second.  I suppose Unix will always be #1
>in the scientific community.

Depends purely on which surveys you want to believe. I think it's far
more telling to note that there are 1) far more packages available for
(various) Unix than for OS/2 at the moment, and 2) major s/w vendors
are not putting very much $$ into developing for OS/2 at the moment,
much to the chagrin of IBM & Microsoft. But that's simply according to
Yet Another Survey that I saw recently, believe what you like.

Nonetheless the Conventional Conservative Wisdom is (and has always been)
that IBM Will Always Win Bigtime. Problem is that such aphorisms are
a poor substitute for true thinking. Anyway, you'll always find lots
of pundits who will say "Unix will always be #2 behind OS/2". That
doesn't make them right; they're just quoting the standard line.
You know the old saying, "no one ever got fired for buying IBM". Same
sort of thing.

Personally I'm pretty tired of hearing the same old BS year after year.
For ten years now I've been hearing the Sacred Marketing Wisdom that
Unix will never make it in the commercial marketplace. Well, now it
has, so they've modified their phrasing, saying it'll never get beyond
number two. They also say it'll never make it in the mainframe world.

"I told Wilbur, and I told Orville, and now I'm telling *you*...that
danged contraption will never work!"

Anyone out there wanna put a little money on OS/2? I've got a sporting
proposition for you...[ offer void where prohibited by law ].

>I personally like Unix better, but right now OS/2 has a standard interface,
>while AT&T and OSF is still arguing over graphics interface standard.

This is really just one of many important issues, not the thing that'll
make or break either Unix or OS/2. Still, I disagree. Motif has already
won. It's just that it'll take a while for the dust to settle.

You should also consider the issues of open systems. Aside from the
hype on the subject, it's getting to be an important issue for more
and more companies when they need to decide where to commit their money.
	Doug
-- 
Doug Merritt		{pyramid,apple}!xdos!doug
Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow		Professional Wildeyed Visionary