From: harley@engrhub.ucsb.edu (Harley Hahn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: IS UNIX DEAD? 13 of 22
Date: 17 Nov 92 01:18:28 GMT

This is number 13 in a series of 22 responses to the question:
 
What do you think about the Byte magazine cover that asked:
IS UNIX DEAD?
 
(moderated by Harley Hahn)
 
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From: manmetha@gauss.rutgers.edu (Rajesh Malhotra)
 
IS UNIX DEAD???
 
Preposterous
 
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From: navarra@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (John Navarra)
 
I will give you two responses. The first relates more to our 
situation with the Schaum's Outline, the second relates to the 
question "Is Unix Dead" in general.
 
I would tell the editor that there is some truth to the article 
(I read it last night). However, that truth is not threatening to 
the sales of the book. The audience for Schaum's Outlines are 
primarily college students or academic professionals. In this 
arena, Unix is certainly not dead -- in fact it grows. The BYTE 
article even talks about this.
 
The concern is the private, cut-throat PC and workstation market. 
Small businesses, and individuals in general do not need the all 
the power Unix offers. Thus, for many, the question is over 
difficult-to-learn vs speed/power/efficiency. Unix's mindset from 
the start was not to provide a tool that was easy to learn. This 
has always been a knock on Unix (but in some sense, it is a 
strong point too). As you say, "Unix is difficult to learn but 
easy to use." 
 
For many years, different individuals have had different views on 
the direction Unix should take. For that reason, many many many 
things have been done. Unix is probably the single-biggest joint 
effort among countries, governments, students, industry, and on 
and on in existence. However, as we all know, once business is 
involved, so is the need for profit. And that is one of the 
things which has plagued Unix.
 
The bigger it gets, the more of a need for standardization. And, 
the more business that are involved, the less the need for 
standardization. For every business wants to have "MY OWN Unix" 
to keep clients depending on them. 
 
The gist of the article was that Windows NT will alleviate some 
of these problems by providing a working standard functional 
across many boundaries -- something Unix (i.e. vendor A Unix, 
vendor B Unix, ... vendor N Unix ) is not too good at. But, as we 
should all know (and as BYTE points out), Microsoft has an 
uncanny ability to sucker the market into believing whatever it 
says well before any product is on the market. (Translation: We 
have no idea that Windows NT will be as good as Microsoft says it 
will be.)
 
However, we do have the old workhorse Unix. And the effort of 
many people behind it, shaping it, molding it, improving it. That 
is a certainty. And perhaps the fact that there is so much to 
Unix is also a blessing. Everyone is almost assured of finding 
what they want out of it. With Windows, you get what they give 
you!
 
Now back to the outline. Our outline deals with the heart and 
soul of Unix -- that which made Unix into the great OS it is 
today. The OS was written for smart people, by smart people; and 
that continues to be true today (even though a new sect has 
sprung up which writes Unix code to make money -- and that can be 
very contradictory to code for the average small business owner 
looking for something to balance his budget vs coding for the 
academic institutions around the world).
 
The situation is very synonymous to the reason why there are such 
a thing as Schaum's outlines for topology, circuit analysis, 
organic chemistry etc. The *average* person has no need for such 
a book because he is not taking topology or circuit analysis, 
etc. Same is true of Unix. The average person that would decide 
between some Unix brand and Windows NT would not need all the 
computing power of Unix.
 
However, the average college student requires more. And the 
average math/computer science/ engineer/ professor etc DOES need 
more and this is why we have Schaum's Outlines. They are written 
by smart people, for smart people.
 
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