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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!noc.netcom.net!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!in1.uu.net!van-bc!vanbc.wimsey.com!cynic.portal.ca!curt From: curt@cynic.portal.ca (Curt Sampson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Why isn't NetBSD popular? Date: 25 Aug 1995 01:19:16 GMT Organization: Internet Portal Services, Ltd. Lines: 36 Message-ID: <41j8ek$gq2@wolfe.wimsey.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: cynic.portal.ca Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:871 comp.unix.bsd.misc:192 comp.os.linux.advocacy:18543 Well, this is all a bit much. I finally got around to opening up the August issue of _Computer_, the official organ of the IEEE Computer Society, to discover an article on Linux. This is all well and fine, except that this is from a fellow proposing essentially that Linux is the new saviour in University environments because it's free. At last, University researchers have access to a free Unix that can run on hardware they can afford, and may already have! There is, of course, no mention of VAX BSD, no mention of 386BSD or any of the following variants, no mention that research into interesting things such as LFS and modern networking is happening on BSD systems, not Linux, no any other apparent awareness of current realities or historical perspective. And to top it off there's an entirely uncritical "Binary Critic" column by Ted Lewis that states now that Windows 95 is here we can say good-bye to Macs, OS/2, and even Novell NetWare! Has this man never heard of legacy systems? Has this man ever actually tried to convert a small (say, 500 user) network from one OS to another? Has he ever seen how the IS department in a corporation with tens of thousands of users spread all over the world functions (or misfunctions)? Gah! If it weren't for _The Annals of Historical Computing_, I'd drop my CS membership right now and join the ACM instead. The only other periodical I read anyway is _Transactions on Networking_. That's my spleen for the day. cjs -- Curt Sampson curt@portal.ca Info at http://www.portal.ca/ Internet Portal Services, Inc. Vancouver, BC (604) 257-9400 De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.