From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:09:35 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <1992Dec21.195317.10599@vpbuild.vp.com> jessea@u013.me.vp.com (Jesse W. Asher) writes:
>In article <64@nearside.UUCP>, shwake@nearside.UUCP (Raymond Shwake) wrote the following:
>>
>>	Based on their comments, and comparing anticipated functionality
>>and pricing, I must report with some anxiety that Unix on the Desktop could
>>be in trouble. Two of those colleagues are long-time UNIX practitioners in
>>both the development and the integration/support areas. They're now proposing
>
>I'm also a Unix bigot who is advocating (with others) moving to Windows
>NT.  I have no problem doing this for several reasons:
>
>1)  Price.  Unix appllications and the OS itself have long been over
>priced.  Both NT and applications will be very cheap compared to those
>for Unix.  Just the other day I heard about a PPP implementation that
>was being sold for Unix for $795.  What a joke.

NT will be "less than $500".  You can buy SVR4 for that price.

>2)  Range of applications.  We will finally be able to run all those
>nice dos applications out on the market that have not run worth a hoot
>under unix.  Not only dos, but also windows apps.  And porting to NT is
>not difficult so a wealth of public domain software will still be
>available.

NT will only support the "top 100" DOS applications.  Porting UNIX
software will be difficult as there aren't any UNIX compatible libraries.

>3)  Ease of programability.  Windows is much easier to problem in than
>X.  Even though it doesn't have all the advantages of X, we can live
>without them for the benefits we gain.  Not only that, but there are X
>servers coming out for NT for those needing X.  But we finally have a
>choice.

Windows sucks.  Microsoft will not support X-11 on NT.

>4)  Ease of usability.  Nt should be a lot more easier to use for the
>user that actually has to get some work done.  Sharing disks and
>printers is no longer something the user has to speed inordinate amounts
>of time learning.  Users shouldn't have to spend time learning how to
>run the OS just to get it to do something.  They should be spending
>their time getting their work done.

This is an absolute crock.

>5)  Ease of administration.  This relates to #4 in that with NT the user
>can do many things that the sysadmin had to previously.  Disk sharing,
>printer sharing, and so on are extremely easy.  You will not believe how
>easy until you see it.

NT will still need an admin, unless system reliability is not an issue.

>6)  Enhancements in OS.  The OS handles some things better than Unix.
>Better scheduling and able to handle 256kb off a serial port (that right
>- 256kb).  They improved what needed to be improved in Unix long ago.

What does "256kb off a serial port" mean?

>Basically, you will have all the power of unix without a lot of the
>hassle.  This is how unix should have been long ago.  Now I too am
>predicting the death of Unix for workstations (PC based).  Windows NT is
>just too much better than Unix for workstations.  This is _not_ a
>prediction of the death of Unix.  Only people that don't know anything
>about Unix predict such nonsense.  Unix is still a great multi-user
>system with many advantages in other areas.  But it is in big trouble
>for workstations.
>
>Besides, NT IS Unix with Windows on top of it.  It is just put out by MS
>and doesn't have an AT+T copyright.

NT will have incomplete TCP/IP support, no telnet, no rlogin, and no ftp.
NT does not have serial port logins.
NT mainly supports acting as a server for Windows 3.x boxes.

The Windows 3.x support on NT is such that a hacker could easily write a
Windows app that would walk right through NT's security.

NT is not UNIX.  The NT beta doesn't even have a decent cli.  NT needs
16 megs of memory.  SVR3.2 can do real work with 4 megs of memory.

NT cannot take the place of a UNIX server in a network, not even a DOS
network.

Microsoft will say anything to get people to buy NT, because they are
scared of OS/2.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	merk!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
Xref: sparky comp.unix.misc:4740 comp.sys.novell:10870