From: jeh@cmkrnl.com
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: The sin of MicroSoft
Date: 8 Jan 93 23:21:10 PST
Distribution: world
Organization: Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego, CA

In article <1993Jan8.153214.887@aspentec.com>, tto@aspentec.com writes:
> Similarly, I think the same sin is now committed by MicroSoft.  Specifically,
> they are leading the public into thinking that a GUI is what an operating
> system is all about; and that GUI is more important than a large (> 1M) 
> addressing space, more important virtual memory, more important than protection
> against errant user programs, more important than pre-emptive multi-tasking,
> etc.  

Windows NT:

	- has a 4 GB virtual address space (2 GB per process, + 2 GB 
	  system-wide)
	- has virtual memory
	- has protection against errant user programs
	- has preemptive multi-tasking
	(with round-robin scheduling within priority levels, automatic 
	priority adjustment, including automatic resolving of dynamic
	deadlocks, for threads in the "normal" priority range,
	fixed priorities for threads in the "real time" priority range
	(which is higher than "normal")

...etc.:

	- has nonblocking I/O as the standard way of doing things (in essence,
	blocking I/O is nonblocking + a wait-for-completion call)
	- has asynchronous procedure calls (much like VMS's ASTs)
	- has multiple execution threads per process (process defines virtual
	address space, thread defines execution context)
	- comes with TCP/IP networking
	- has powerful interthread communication and control primitives
	(these can be used between threads in the same process or different 
	processes)

> They are also in effect saying that you should not buy software from
> elsewhere because it is not guaranteed to work in the next release of the
> operating system.  (Need I say why this is bad?)

I see no evidence that Microsoft has said "you shouldn't buy
software from elsewhere".  From where I sit, it looks as though Microsoft is
going out of their way to help third-party application developers.  Sure, they
have a suite of applications of their own -- but this isn't wrong.  They have
a lab where third parties' applications can be tested and officially blessed
as "Windows Compatible" or "Windows NT Compatible" or whatever.  

> History has a tendency to repeat itself.  I sometimes wondered what the
> world of computing world would be like had Multics been developed for the 360.
> Twenty years from now people would be wondering what it would be like if
> there had been a decent operating system for the PC.

People will always wonder what might have been.  Personally I wonder what might
have happened if DEC had had an PDP-11 PC with extended addressing, memory-
mapped video, and a well-understood I/O bus with an already-thriving third-
party market, at about the same time and price as the first IBM PC --
especially considering how many people at the time just *loved* working on
PDP-11's. 

This however could not have happened under Ken Olsen.  Major decisions at DEC
for the last ten years or so have been influenced by KO's belief that "hardly
anybody needs a CPU at their desk" and "anyone who wants a computer at home is
crazy".  He might have been right (in some sense) on both counts, but that
doesn't matter -- what matters is what people want to buy. People wanted to buy
CPUs for every desk and computers for the home, and whether or not they really
"need" them is utterly beside the point -- that's where the market is. DEC's
current woes are a direct result of KO's not seeing this. 

I suspect that what we are doing in this business today, wrt PCs, Macs, Unix
(and now VMS) workstations running at 100 MIPs (really, now.  Who really NEEDS
100 MIPs on the desktop?  Except that "we have to offer one that fast because
our competitors do"?), etc., is also being shaped by someone's opinions on the
way things are... but we won't be able to see this until we can look back to
now from oh, say, five years from now. 

> Just my $.02.

And mine!

> 
> Tak.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Tak To                                                    (617) 577-0310 x377
> Box 45, MIT Branch PO, Cambridge, Ma 02139.                  tto@aspentec.com
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

	--- Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Consulting, San Diego CA
drivers, internals, networks, applications, and training for VMS and Windows-NT
uucp 'g' protocol guru and release coordinator, VMSnet (DECUS uucp) W.G., and 
Chair, Programming and Internals Working Group, U.S. DECUS VMS Systems SIG 
Internet:  jeh@cmkrnl.com, hanrahan@eisner.decus.org, or jeh@crash.cts.com
Uucp:  ...{crash,eisner,uunet}!cmkrnl!jeh
Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy