*BSD News Article 94405


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From: seh@quadrizen.com (Stephen E. Halpin)
Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: NT doesn't support MIPS anymore [ was Re: Linux or FreeBSD ...]
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 02:39:48 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
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On 21 Apr 1997 09:36:58 GMT, andreas@klemm.gtn.com (Andreas Klemm)
wrote:

>[Posted and mailed]
>
>In article <3346646b.68448149@news.sprynet.com>,
>	lcappite@sprynet.com (Goatboy) writes:
>>>4 years ago(when FreeBSD started) there were no 200 MHz x86 CPUs!
>> 
>> Actually, there were. The DEC Alphas and the MIPS processors, all of
>> which NT can run on.
>
>You're deadly wrong ... Microsoft doesn't support MIPS anymore with
>their new Version 4.x.
>
>Don't say, well, then I'll keep on using 3.51. Then you are stuck with
>your old Microsoft software, since the new Internet Explorer only runs
>on Win95 or Windows NT 4.x.
>
>This is only one example, where you are in the claws of Microsoft 
>product management ...

And this differs from every other vendor how??  The transition of
NextStep to OPENSTEP dropped HP support, and the SPARC
code only works on the older 32-bit processors.  They were trying
to drop MACH outright, and theyve dropped many kits.  Apple dropped
A/UX support outright, and with MacOS 8, will likely drop 680x0
support (ie their own hardware.)  Apple is also now in the process
of dropping many kits.  Vendors of Solaris software often
do not support Solaris for x86 even though it is (well, not really)
API compatable with Solaris for SPARC.  The UNIX camp claims
to be "open" and yet no two implementations are fully compatable
in both directions (this would seem to include many pairings of
LINUX "systems.")  Even the FSF hasnt come near completing
the kernel (now known as HURD) it set out to develop 13 years ago.

Business is in business to make money.  Free software developers
often base their development efforts on what they would like
to do at the moment.  In both cases, there are limits on time and
money, and the long term direction each will take is almost always
unpredictable.  The history of computing is littered with joint
ventures and consortiums which have died or evolved orthogonally
to their original mandate.  For the rest of us, it means that there
are risks in our decision to commit to platforms.  These are the
rules and Microsoft plays by them just like everyone else.  They
are as successful as they are financially because they made
fewer key mistakes than their competitors (note that "key" and
"big" can be orthogonal.)

>And if I remember right, then one of the other Platforms, I think
>it's Power PC, isn't supported as well anymore with NT 4.x.
>
>People, who believed, that Microsoft Windows NT is a real Multiplatform
>approach are left alone.

As are the believers in Windows NT for Power PC, Solaris for
Power PC, and Netware for Power PC, who thought the Power PC
architecture was going to lead to a real multiOS approach.  Or the
IBM and Apple fans who thought that Taligent was going to be the
unified OO approach.  Or the believers in NextStep for 680x0,
for SPARC, for HP, and OPENSTEP for Alpha who thought
that NeXT was a real Multiplatform approach.  Or the believers
in ACE who thought that running both NT and UNIX on Intel,
MIPS and Alpha was going to be a "unified solution."  The list
goes on...

>That's the way, how Microsoft makes business with you ...

Anyone who doesnt expect this from any vendor is in for a lifetime
of rude suprises.

>The next step is, that Microsoft gets rid of their Domain Models
>and switches to X.400 directory services ... Then you probably
>can get rid of that stuff as well ;-/
>
>Have fun using Microsoft ;-)

I have fun using anything other than OS/2 :->

>	Andreas ///
>
>-- 
>andreas@klemm.gtn.com         /\/\___      Wiechers & Partner Datentechnik GmbH
>   Andreas Klemm          ___/\/\/         Support Unix -- andreas.klemm@wup.de
>pgp p-key  http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bal/pks-toplev.html  >>> powered by <<<
>ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Printing/aps-491.tgz  >>>    FreeBSD <<<