*BSD News Article 88603


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From: Linas Vepstas <linas@fc.net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Betting on Unix
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 03:35:39 -0600
Organization: Intransco
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To: Alex Yung <alyung@pookie.uchicago.edu>
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.setup:95956 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2358 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:52123 comp.os.os2.advocacy:266274

Alex Yung wrote:
>  Most of the Unix apps
> are not built for any home users.  It is meant for mission critical
> processes.  Each OS addresses certain need for certain population.

There is no technical reason why unix couldn't have been the OS of
choice for secretaries and home users.  The practical reason why its not
is that only one unix vendor, NeXT, ever really tried to make Unix easy
to use.  Turns out, they used the wrong marketing formula.  The rest of
the unix vendors  didn't try anything similar (i.e. COSE) until 93-94,
and by then Windows 3.1 was far too strongly entrenched in homes and
offices. It was too late for the home and small office market.

If Steven Jobs had taken the circa 1988-89-90 NeXT os and ported it to
PC's, and thrown in a DOS emulator, neither Win95 or NT would exist
today, Microsoft would be a small company selling Mac software, and unix
would be the platform of choice for home and small office use.  We would
probably be complaining about big, bad Jobs, and cheering little
itty-bitty Gates.

No, the problem with unix is that the big unix vendors were too busy
pursuing the high-margin, high-profit, low-volume workstation and
mission-critical market to realize that the revolution brewing in
low-cost, high-volume PC space would one day creep up on them and eat
thier lunch. Its just history ... a twist of fate ... and a failure of
vision (in the face of Bill Gates competing vision.)

--linas

P.S. our company deploys Linux for all of its mission-critical apps. The
boss runs windows, and the sec'y has a mac.