Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1996 20:21:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill/Carolyn Pechter <pechter@shell.monmouth.com> To: wes@intele.net, chat@freebsd.org Cc: s_ilgen@csc32.enet.dec.com (Sally Ilgen) Subject: Re: Unixware Message-ID: <199604290021.UAA23469@shell.monmouth.com> In-Reply-To: <199604281807.MAA05773@obie.softweyr.com> from "wes@intele.net" at Apr 28, 96 12:07:42 pm
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> > Gary Palmer writes: > > The dream of a single flavour of Unix came a step closer last > > week, as the seven firms that resell the operating system on Intel > > platforms agreed to ditch their own versions and standardise on > > Unixware. > > > > [...] > Everyone who wants a "single UNIX" raise your hands. Anyone? I had > hoped this idiot idea would die along with VMS, but I guess the > mindless minions of MicroSoft are still maintaining this is a > disadvantage of UNIX. FLAME ON! Unsubstantiated opinion follows. The point is -- it's much harder to standardize on applications in a Unix environment. What version of Framemaker are you running. Well, if you're running AIX 4.0.3 4.x. (5 just came out for AIX about a year after the Solaris/Sun OS one...) Why... because the releases are staged out in order to minimize the size of the development staff and to maximize the return on the initial development investment. Unix is harder to admin. Why. Well, the tools and commands differ between versions. I'm flexible. I've done SysIII, SysV Release 0, 2 and 3. I've done BSD 4.2, 4.3 varients, "Real-Time" Unix, SVR4, Solaris 2.3 and 2.4. If all I had was the "commercial vendor training" I'd spend all day on the phone to support. I have to study on my own. Hack at FreeBSD, Xenix, Coherent, Linux to try stuff that will work "generically" across "Unix" systems... Re: VMS -- at least their was ONE standard set of commands. There was real helpfiles. There WAS a support line with people who could rattle off MORE THAN THE 5 TOP reasons for a problem and they would work with you to resolve it. (BTW Microsoft fails on this one... try to understand Windows NT as shipped when you get messages like Sparrow initialization failed." What's a *^(&$# sparrow and why does it initialize.) The support by rote reading of prior database trouble tickets SUCKS big time. "But it's cheaper than hiring engineers to do that..." I make my living doing Unix admin and system support for AIX developers in-house right now. It was SunOS, HPUX, and Solaris before that. Xelos, RTU and MicroXelos and UniPlus (with Concurrent/Perkin Elmer and Masscomp HW) before that. Pyramid OS/x and DC/OSx and hardware before that. ...AND DEC Hardware Vax/VMS, RT11, RSX11 before that. Guess which one I found the most rational and logical. At least with a SINGLE Unix taking commercial hold on the Intel level it might push a standard up hill. Commercial data processing centers don't want to spend money on different OS's and multiple support crews. That's why NT is eating Unix's lunch on the desktop and why it's making major inroads into corporate servers. (I prefer Unix servers to NT. I prefer OS2 server to NT. I prefer Novell servers to NT. Why -- because I've got an irrational fear of Microsofts intentions in most things. They've got monopoly down better than anyone since Standard Oil. They've got it down much better than IBM or DEC ever could've dreamed of...) anyway ONE UNIX STANDARD is a good thing. My prediction is Unix will be dead or dying by 2005 (and hopefully NT won't survive for ever...but it scares me). They want DROIDS to run most corporate machines. A windows interface, a couple of pull downs, canned applications, a simple backup/restore application. They want $35k college kids (hell, they want less than that -- 2 year tech school wonders) to run the stuff. They're hiring Unix admins that I wouldn't have had as VMS operators... FLAME OFF. Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Pechter/Carolyn Pechter | 17 Meredith Drive, Tinton Falls, NJ 07724, 908-389-3592 | pechter@shell.monmouth.com I'll run Win96 on my box when you pry the keyboard from my cold, dead hands. FreeBSD, OS/2, CP/M, RT11, spoken here.
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