From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: IS UNIX DEAD?
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 19:20:26 GMT

In <Bx577E.AIy@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> papresco@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Paul Prescod) writes:

>  > The vast majority of the Unix questions I receive as a user 
>  > assistant are answered in the introductory documentation I have 
>  > gone to great pains to thrust in the users' faces whether or not 
>  > they want it.  Once people discover that a system is difficult to 
>  > use, but still don't bother to read the available documentation, 
>  > permit me to suggest humbly that they're NOT right in evaluating 
>  > its difficulty for the beginner. 

>I READ man pages.  I HAVE books on Unix.  I HAVE people around me that
>understand it.

>I am not talking about me.  I am talking about the 80% of the computer
>world that only knows 10 DOS commands.  To them, Dos is cryptic.  Unix
>is another language altogether.  The attitude that "it is there for them
>to learn." is inappropriate.  If I go to H&R block, I don't expect to
>know as much as the tax guy.  I expect HIM to do MY taxes.  If I go to 
>the accountant, I expect HIM to do MY accounting.  When they come to
>a computer, they have a right to expect that we, the computer guys have
>already made it easy enough to use that they don't have to spend hours
>or even days learning it before they get productive.

Yeah, and they want to get behind the wheel of a car and just drive it
away without having to learn anything, too.  

>Unix is an operating system for people who like operating systems.

No, Unix is an operating system for people who like POWER.

>System 7/Windows is an operating system for people who do not want to know
>that there is an operating system between them and their work.

No, it's for people who have limited demands to place on the OS, so
the developer can anticipate all of them.  They also like soft
furniture without corners and labels telling you not to run your hair
dryer in the shower.

>DOS is not an operating system (in the modern sense).

>Somewhere in between these poles lies a place where one operating system
>can be both easy and powerful, backwards compatible and futuristic, 
>graphical and command line driven.

>OS/2, WindowsNT, PowerOS, are all looking for that place.  Unix should be
>too.  If it doesn't, it will be replaced by something that does.

Trying to be all things to all people with everyone doing it is a good
way to arrive at a universe of mediocre pap.

>Some things that have to be change about unix before it reaches that place:

>1.It should have a more standardized, easy to use GUI (but still flexible)

Why?  Every other operating system has its own GUI.  Why shouldn't
each vendor's implementation of UNIX?  What are you going to use for
the 'standard GUI'?  The problem with standardization is that it tends
to stop progress, so it is a disaster when done too early.

>2. It should have a powerful command line.

It does.

>3.It should install from floppy as well as CD.

Some do.  This should certainly be an extra-cost option.

>4.It should run, graphically, in less then 8MB of memory.

So much for capability.  NT currently doesn't do this.

>5.It should cost less then $300.00

Arbitrary pricing?  It should cost what it needs to cost to be right,
maintained, and advanced.

>6.It should have toll free phone support

Hell, Microsoft doesn't even do this.  Can you say '900 number' and
'long distance call'?

>7.It should be backed by a largish commerical company.

Everybody should get their UNIX from one company?  Sounds like a good
way to create another Microsoft.  Who do you want to nomiinate?  This
defeats the reason that a lot of people are going to UNIX.

>Perhaps "destiny" is it.  Perhaps not.  I am just the message bearer from
>the PC world...where the market is.  You can ignore that market if you want,
>but do it at your peril.

Go back to your PC, if you think you're such a 'peril' to the people
out in the real world.




-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions