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Date:      Sun, 20 Aug 1995 14:08:07 -0500
From:      Peter da Silva <peter@bonkers.taronga.com>
To:        dennis@et.htp.com
Cc:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD in a Windows World
Message-ID:  <199508201908.OAA19984@bonkers.taronga.com>
In-Reply-To: <199508201613.MAA01700@mail.htp.com>

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In article <199508201613.MAA01700@mail.htp.com>,
dennis <dennis@et.htp.com> wrote:
>A real operating system is one that provides a computer with usable
>services, which both DOS and WINDOS (as it should be called) do.

An operating system is that component of the software in a computer that
manages system resources. In the case of DOS the operating system is embedded
in every application: just about every resource allocation issue is fobbed
off on the application writer. All DOS manages is storage and a modicum of
device interfaces... and most programs ignore the DOS-provided drivers.

Windows is better, though it does leave applications responsible for most
scheduling.

>Academically, it may be the truth, but the point is that its irrelevant. The
>market is driven by functinality,

The market is not driven by functionality. It's driven by applications. the
market doesn't care what an operating system is so long as it runs their
applications. It doesn't even care much how good those applications are so
long as they can do what they bought them for.

>The market today is convertees (from other Un*x type OSs) and simple
>canned functionality (like routers).

In other words: applications.

The other thing you have to watch out for is, the market has no memory and no
foresight. You and I can see that buying a scheduling package that ONLY runs
on top of a mail package is short-sighted, and if you buy that scheduling
package you're going to be locked into that mail package, but it doesn't care
if that package will solve today's problem. Open system solutions don't do
that, which means they're worth putting up with a bit of inconvenience. How
do you convince the market to do that, though?



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