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From: fcrary@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Network Performance
Date: 28 Jun 1997 02:15:55 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <5p1s4r$fno@lace.colorado.edu>
References: <slrn5qngmn.ie2.jlc@mass-pc.wpi.edu> <5ouj75$ha0@mailsrv1> <5p18oe$pjh$1@flea.best.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rintintin.colorado.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: fcrary
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.networking:82806 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:43662
In article <5p18oe$pjh$1@flea.best.net>,
Matt Dillon <dillon@flea.best.net> wrote:
> The real question that we face is what to do about microsoft. NT is
> a major threat to UNIX, and I for one do not want to hand off a
> microsoft dominated world to my future kids. They are the epitomy of
> inelegance, bloat, and badly designed and buggy software.
I have a somewhat different objection to Windows NT. While I haven't
used it much, I've talked to system administrators how have, and
my impression is that its security is (at best) inadequate. That
is a serious problem if people start using it as if it were a secure,
reliable operating system. That is, its image is alot better than
the reality, and that's going to cause a large number of problems
that go beyond inelegant, bloated and buggy software.
> Yet most UNIX vendors are still missing the boat in the clue department.
> They are fighting over a smaller and smaller piece of turf and more
> pieces get ripped out from under them every day. They are loosing to
> the Free UNIX's by not keeping their APIs and support utilities up to date
> and charging for stupid features that can be had for free elsewhere,
> they have lost most of their base hardware market to workstation and
> server quality PC's (at least SUN has realized that and ships Solaris
> for PC platforms!).
I don't think that's the real problem. For someone who knows nothing about
computers and doesn't want to learn, Windows (95 or NT) is a convenient
operating system. No matter how you market a Unix OS, or how you support
various utilities, that's still going to be true. Unix simply isn't
the ideal environment for stupid users. The problem (made worse by
Microsoft's marketing) is that this sort of user thinks he can get
all the computing power he needs, with an operating system that doesn't
require him to learn much of anything. That's not the case, but
this myth does improve Microsoft's business.
Frank Crary
CU Boulder