From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun May 26 16:03:49 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA03637 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 26 May 1996 16:03:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from etinc.com (etinc.com [204.141.244.98]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA03622 for ; Sun, 26 May 1996 16:03:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dialup-usr11.etinc.com (dialup-usr11.etinc.com [204.141.95.132]) by etinc.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with SMTP id TAA07129; Sun, 26 May 1996 19:09:46 -0400 Date: Sun, 26 May 1996 19:09:46 -0400 Message-Id: <199605262309.TAA07129@etinc.com> X-Sender: dennis@etinc.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 2.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Sean Doran From: dennis@etinc.com (Dennis) Subject: Re: The view from here (was Re: ISDN Compression Load on CPU) Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk S. Doran writes.... >-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > >>>>>> "Dennis" == Dennis writes: > > Dennis> All of the routers on the market are just > Dennis> basically PCs, in one form or another. Cisco > Dennis> OS is just a hacked up unix os, so what your > Dennis> really saying is that the guys at cisco write > Dennis> better code than you do. > >Well, your inaccuracies need correcting. > >Firstly, "IOS" (a name I hate) is not like UNIX in just >about any respect you'd care to think about. Um, I didnt say it was like modern VM unix, only that its origin is unix-based. The fact that it doesnt do alot of things like unix is a result of the "hacking". >There are definite and obvious advantages to being able to >use a UNIX-using PC (or Sun SPARC) as a low-to- >moderate-end router. Making up stories about Cisco >products in particular is not necessary to prove that >point, and it doesn't really detract from the obvious >disadvantages of using a PC instead of a dedicated router, >both technical and non-technical. This would be fine, except that many of the "obvious" advantages are horse-nonsense (like the moving parts BS). The issue is that unless your talking very high density or very high end, the "advantages" are mostly propaganda. your (ridiculous) allusion to the "Sun Sparc" is a clear indication that you just dont get it. The advantages of a PC are the high power/ low cost ratio, modularity and availablilty of low cost subsystems, and mass production cost attributes of virtually all componants, as well as the wide variety and functionality of inexpensive software, virtually none of which are attributes of the Sun Sparc. db