Date: Sun, 9 Nov 1997 08:04:47 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Cc: wghhicks@ix.netcom.com, mini@d198-232.uoregon.edu, mike@smith.net.au, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: x86 gods; advice? Suggestions? Message-ID: <199711090804.BAA17700@usr06.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <199711081106.VAA01053@word.smith.net.au> from "Mike Smith" at Nov 8, 97 09:36:46 pm
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> > Well, in the bad old days, I would probably have reached for Forth. > > There is some precedent for this approach over at Sun... > > OpenBoot is big and expensive. And it doesn't lock you into x86 to run the BIOS on video cards... where's the fun in that? If you go that route, pretty soon, you have people switching to other processors every time a bug is revealed, and people start writing ActiveX components and viruses and network program stack overflow using programs and using guest accounts on ISP's with machines using Pentium processors to mount denial of service attacks. People are not supposed to switch to other processors... they are supposed to live with the bugs because they have no alternatives. And if that argment doesn't sway you, what about software availability? Do you realize that a DEC Alpha or Motorola PowerPC simply *can't* run *any* of the most popular viruses you can get for DOS machines? Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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