From: system@fallout.lonestar.org
Newsgroups: austin.general,tx.general
Subject: Re: August 1992 CACTUS Newsletter
Date: 16 Aug 92 05:15:27 GMT
Organization: DECUS DFWLUG BBS *Dallas*TX*

In article <1992Aug15.004937.23258@chinacat.unicom.com>, chip@chinacat.unicom.com (Chip Rosenthal) writes:
> 
>                         CACTUS Newsletter
> 
>              Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society
> 
>                Volume 8, Number 8  -  August 1992
>
>            The CACTUS Newsletter is published monthly.
>            Your comments and submissions are welcome.
>            Our email address is newsletter@cactus.org.
> 
>    UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories.
> 
> 

> *** Commentary - USL v. BSDI ***
> 
>     [Opinions are those of the author.  Responses are welcomed.
> We assume such responses are submitted for publication and
> reserve the right to edit submissions.]
> 
>     We, as CACTUS members, claim to be ``interested in open
> systems such as UNIX.''  By today's reality, you can distill away
> the buzzwords to get ``we are interested in UNIX.''  

> None the less, there are good reasons for keeping our charter open.


>This means somebody could conceivably design
> something like UNIX but not UNIX.
> 

>     We UNIX bigots have had a good chuckle at companies that
> claim they will bestow POSIX complaince upon their proprietary
> operating systems.  I view such announcements as pandering to
> purchasing specifications, not a sincere embrace of the priciples
> that make UNIX attractive.  The people who buy VMS do so because
> they want VMS.  If they want UNIX, they know where to get it.
> 

VMS achieved XPG3 branding by X/Open in June of this year with
POSIX and VAX C 3.2.  

"Propriatary Operating" systems can be a UNIX varient if the 
 'ADDED VALUE' provided by those UNIX systems interferes with
 adherance to neutral(nonvendor) industry standards. 

 As the traditional operating systems contain additional added
 value above base level UNIX computing so it should  come as no
 surprise when Vendors also provide a Standard's compliant systems
 too.

 These added value features (TP, shared libraries and more) will
 find their way into the Industry Standards over time and UNIXes
 and other Operating systems will either have to comply or they
 won't be viable with standards based softwares.

 Software Vendors are not going to maintain multiple code streams
 anymore unless they absolutely have to.  With POSIX, Xwindows, Motif,
 ANSI and IEEE standards being supported across all the major platforms 
 it becomes a no brainer decision as to what software to write for 
 those platforms -- Standards Based Applications.

 Added value by Operating Systems will become used a only a last resort
 by software vendors and only to gain some legitimate market advantage,
 but there will be occasions to use these new and highly functional 
 features.

 Open Systems doesn't equal UNIX, it equals adhearence to Vendor
 neutral standards that everyone in the industry can participate
 in and use on a daily basis.

 Be seeing you,


+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| John Wisniewski |         Consultant/DFW DECUS LUG Counterpart           |
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ |   Voice:           214-404-6412                        |
| |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| |    UUCP:  wisniewski@fallout.lonestar.org  (DFWLUG BBS)| 
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | At Work:  wisniewski@dpdmai.enet.dec.com               |
| Dallas, TX  USA |                                                        |
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  "You're in a maze of twisty little UNIX varients, all different"
Newsgroups: austin.general