From: jbone@splat.dell.com (Jeff Bone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Subject: Re: Open Letter: Don't get rid of UNIX
Date: 4 Sep 92 15:35:59 GMT
Organization: Dell Computer Co

again:  

DISCLAIMER:  This represents MY opinion ONLY, and is probably 180 degrees
from what my employer's position is!


woodacre@mips.com (Michael Woodacre) writes:

>
>>  (i said NT doesn't exist)
>
>This is not true, NT does exist - it is in the hands of thousands of
>developers - all the developers that attended the windows conference
>in San Francisco is July received a CD ROM copy. How can you say NT is
>just wrong if you don't even know what it is?

I've read the journal articles.  I know the architecture.  I know that
there's a "developers copy" floating around.  BUT --- say I have a 1000
user intstallation, I need an OS and productivity software and a CAD
package and email, and maybe even an NNTP news reader...  and I need it
TODAY. Is NT my solution right now?  Nope.  Is UNIX?  Maybe so.  Ergo:
if I can't buy it to run my business today, it just doesn't exist.

I can think of another good example of a barely existing OS --- OS/2.
THAT got all kinds of praise when it was announced, etc.  Where are
all the OS/2 boxes today?  Only in the shops of IS managers that bought
it because it was "the" thing, and their managers are probably asking
them now "when's that server going to be ported to UNIX".


>I don't believe anyone who is backing NT would expect UNIX to disappear
>overnight but the simple fact is that NT will provide many of the OS
>facilities that previously were only avaliable to UNIX users. NT may not
>be the ultimate OS but it will probably be more than good enough for the
>vast majority of computer users. Of course there will still be room for
>other OS's in specialised areas.

The last is the clincher --- the assumption is that UNIX and so forth
will become "niche" OS's.  Let's consider something:  UNIX as an OS is
more generally USEFUL than any other OS, out of the box.  NT has borrowed
many concepts and features from UNIX for this reason.  Now --- how about
one good reason why people who feature set X from UNIX will buy NT to get
that feature set rather than buying UNIX?  Your argument is flawed.

Once more:  if you want "UNIX" features, why buy NT to get them?


>> NT will compete with UNIX right out of the starting gate, JUST BECAUSE
>> IT HAS SCADS OF $$$ AND MICROSOFT BEHIND IT!  This SUCKS! 
>
>Clearly you don;t understand market forces - something only has to do
>a reasonable job that most of it's users want - it doesn't need to be
>the ultimate solution to everything to suceed.

Clearly you don't understand my point.  Sure, the market will lap up
NT.  It'll do well.  My POINT is that the market is ignorant in many
respects.  "It" will buy NT because "it" bought DOS, because "it"
bought Windows, and because Microsoft and the trade rags are hyping
NT as an end-all be-all.  IF users honestly examined their needs, I
believe that a large part of the community that *will* buy NT would
buy UNIX instead.

Why do users want NT?  Because they don't know any better, and because
Microsoft and the PC trade rag industry is hyping it like mad.  Tell you
what, here's an experiment:  get any UNIX-oriented rag and any PC rag
from Ziff-Davis.  Look at the 180 degree difference in hype.  The UNIX
rag will basically ignore the fact that the PC market exists, and the
PC trade rag will have "NT Kills UNIX" articles.  Clearly, neither is
right.  If users and IS managers sat down and honestly evaluated the
needs of server environments and desktop environments, we'd probably
all have Macs and NeXTs on our desks and Big UNIX Boxes in the server
room.  But IS managers and users read the trade rags for the marker
segment they perceive themselves being in, and they *believe* what
they read.  Thus we get the MESS we're in today, with Novell and TCP/IP
and Appletalk and god knows what else on our networks, with piecemeal
OS's -w- packet drivers from one vendor and this driver from another
and user-configured memory managers and four or five window systems...

IT'S A MESS!  UNIX *could* have been, in one form or another, a solution.
Microsoft could have sold UNIX better than it did --- and they could
have been a force for "good".  BUT they want to lock down the desktop.
This'll lead to technological stagnation, IMHO.  This isn't a good
situation.

>> Developers
>> with integrity will port to NT IF IT'S A DECENT OS, *not* just because
>> the WA Giant is shoving it down their throats.
>
>Or if they want to stay in business, due to the large number of PC users
>of in the world who want to buy software

I should have attached a smiley to that.  Sure, lot's of developers will
port UNIX products to NT.  It just sucks that we're getting saddled with
this single-vendor OS which will become over time a more and more
closed, proprietary architecture and which will almost certainly not
come with the robust, full-featured environment that UNIX users have
come to expect.  Instead we get a piecemeal, hard-to-administer env.
similar to Windows today.  Thanks, I'll pass, even if it means giving
up market share.  


ONE MORE TIME, MY OPINIONS ONLY!


jb


--
-- Jeff Bone ------------------------------------------------------------
      "Imagination is more important than knowledge."  - A. Einstein
------------------------------------------------------- jbone@dell.com --
                                                                       --
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy