From: rvinluan@cs.cornell.edu (Rolando Vinluan)
Subject: Re: IS UNIX DEAD?
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY 14853
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 03:30:04 GMT

rayj@Celestial.COM (Ray Jones) writes:

>>pardon me for asking but WTF is NT?

>Windows NT is Microsoft's next cure for all the world's ills.
>From what I understand, it is UNIX made brain dead so that it is single
>user.  However they use the Mach kernel so they won't have to pay the
>AT&T lic. fee.
>-- 
>Onager Systems			 Ray A. Jones
>18710 NE 59th Ct.		UUCP .....uunet!camco!onager!ray
># 2053       			...ray@onager.Celestial.COM
>Redmond, WA 98052               206-885-3568 

	(Sigh)

	Okay, all ye DOS/Windows-deprived Unix users, listen up!
Here are some facts to clear up common misconceptions about NT.
If you want more facts, you can buy the September (I think) issue
of Microsoft Systems Journal, or maybe read comp.os.ms-windows.win32.

	1) Windows NT is microkernel-based, but is NOT based on the
	Mach microkernel (except for ideas, maybe).

	2) Under the microkernel, different OS subsystems can be emulated
	When it ships, it's supposed to come with DOS, Windows, OS/2 1.x
	and POSIX 1003.1 (or whatever).

	3) Windows NT supports processes running under different security
	and user id's, and thus is inherently multiuser. However, MS currently
	doesn't want to include telnet and whatever deamons into the
	base package. Not that the system can't, but in a network where
	every machine uses NT's RPC, the idea is you don't have to log on
	explicity to another machine --- if you have the permissions,
	you just simply use any of its resources (printers, CPU, etc)
	transparently. I guess it's a "religious" issue. Since a lot
	of people are asking for telnet deamons, though, they might change their
	mind. Whatever happens, there will surely be 3rd party communications
	packages available when it comes out.

	4) It's supposed to come out in 1Q93.

	5) The "pre-beta" version for developers was recently available
	on CD-ROM for $69 (the offer ended this month). If you had ordered
	this, you'd get the real beta that's shipping this month, and
	the first version of the commercial release. Reports have it that
	20,000 ordered this developer's CD (w/c included the SDK and a
	C++ compiler).

	5) It currently needs a 386 and at least 12 MB, but they're
	supposed to get that down to 8MB come the finished version.

	7) It comes with quite a lot of features that can be found in
	some versions of Unix, but never in one package. Threads, sockets,
	DCE RPC, TCP/IP support (this is a big thing for non-Unix OS's),
	full symmetric multiprocessing (not like Solaris v2.0!),
	the Windows graphics API, disk journaling, disk striping,
	memory-mapped files, and lots of other things I don't remember.

	8) It was written to be easily portable, and on the first day
	it comes out it's supposed to run on Intel 386, MIPS R4000,
	and maybe DEC Alpha machines. In all of these platforms, one
	will be be able to run DOS binaries (through a SoftPC emulation
	layer if needed). If it's even moderately successful, there will
	probably be enough of a market that Sun, IBM, SGI and others may
	want to port (write the Hardware Abstraction Layer module)
	to their machine.

	9) Given the huge installed base of Intel machines, the cheaper
	and cheaper 486 boxes are becoming, and Microsoft's huge
	marketing clout, if NT manages to do all of the above,
	now do you see why it has some Unix guys worried?
	(Actually, NT'll probably be good for Unix --- it'll force
	vendors to clean the whole System V hodgepodge up, and
	add truly more advanced features, like say group communication
	primitives.)


Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions