system: You are Neeti Ray, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Unix message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Yousuf Khan about "Linux".

They wrote:
YK>NR>     Why are we stuck on GUI only for the future?  Why
YK>NR> would you need GUI for
YK>NR> order-entry, reading email/news?  If you drop the
YK>NR> simple & *very efficient*
YK>NR> text mode, the cost of *all* your terminals would skyrocket.  Simple
YK>NR> information exchange that can be done via a text
YK>NR> interface on a *cheap* PC or
YK>NR> dumb-term would now require an expensive machine.
YK>
YK>The GUI goes beyond just a prettier interface to do the exact same thing
YK>used to do. The GUI is an absolute stepping stone for the coming world of
YK>object-oriented interface.
YK>Here's an example, with today's e-mail systems, you don't have much beyond
YK>text to worry about. But in the future, e-mail is drag'n'drop objects.
YK>files, movie clips, still pictures, all flowing forth automatically as you
YK>read through the text -- because they are part of the text.
YK>With today's order-entry systems, you choose a part, figure out its part
YK>number, and then you proceed to fill in its information on a generic order
YK>entry screen; you may have to go to specialized screens depending on the
YK>you are describing. In the order-entry of the future, you choose a picture
YK>a part, which explodes into an order entry screen that is specific to that
YK>part alone, no extraneous data entry, no switching back and forth between
YK>specialized and generic screens for describing the same part.
YK>YK>With the DOS replacements, you've been able to
YK>YK>achieve such things as OLE,
YK>YK>SOM, etc. These are simplistically where entire
YK>YK>applications are plugged
YK>NR> into
YK>YK>each other to create a bigger application. This sort
YK>NR> of thing was difficult
YK>NR> in
YK>YK>DOS, and it is difficult in Unix. The DOS
YK>YK>replacements have revolutionarilly
YK>YK>step above DOS, but Unix has never had a revolution.
YK>
YK>NR>     DOS *needed* a revolution... it's still stuck w/
YK>NR> 640k limits in a 16bit
YK>NR> world.  The only revolution/evolution Unix needs is more market/system
YK>NR> compatibility.  Dos, in trying to grow up, is looking more and more
YK>NR> Unix... witness OS/2 and WinNT.
YK>
YK>You miss the point entirely, the revolution in the DOS world isn't the
YK>banishment of the 640K limit, nor the 32MB limit, nor the 540MB limit nor
YK>whatever other limit you care to think about. The revolution is the move
YK>towards object-orientation in every respect, from the programming code, to
YK>user interface, and everything else in between.
YK>DOS already looked like Unix, that's exactly what they are trying to move
YK>from. They are moving away from the command-line, they are moving away
YK>the piping, the redirecting, the inputting, and the outputting.
YK>
YK>In the end, nobody could care less if an operating system is 16-bit,
YK>or whatever. Nobody could care less if operating system A can access more
YK>memory than operating system B. Nobody could care less if operating system
YK>had paging but operating system B didn't. In the end, the only thing that
YK>matters is how useable that operating system is. You confuse arcane
YK>details with being the road to progress.
YK>The revolution that the DOS world is undergoing is barely even underway in
YK>Unix world -- objects.

Write your reply.

assistant: Yousuf,
you
    That world came a long time ago.  It's called NeXT.  Do a search on
GNUStep and see what you come up w/.
Sound
    Sounds like MIME and NeXTmail that exists *right now* on Unix systems.
part
of
    Can you tell the difference btwn a 3/8" nut and a 1/2" nut from a
picture?
 I'd have a ridiculously hard time.  If you'd ever done any order entry, you
don't bother w/ descriptions, just part numbers.  Catalogs are a different
matter altogether, don't get them mixed up.
like
the
away
rom
32-bit,
A
technical
    All cars have steering wheels and accelerator pedals.  The _guts_ of the
machine dictates what it's good for.  People *do* care what OS they're using
when it has an effect.  Don't confuse a *user* interface w/ the OS.  The
greatest thing about Unix is the ability to change personalities.  You can
have
CLI's or GUI's, clients and servers all on the same machine(s).
the
    Read my first line...been there... done that.
    Kin Lau (gabe@io.org)