From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Jul 17 09:11:55 1996 Return-Path: owner-chat Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA00968 for chat-outgoing; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:11:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.HeadCandy.com (root@mindbender.headcandy.com [199.238.225.168]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA00957; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:11:50 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.HeadCandy.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA05923; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:10:55 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199607171610.JAA05923@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.HeadCandy.com: Host michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu cc: Domingo Siliceo , freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Reply-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Followup-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Opinions? In-reply-to: Your message of Tue, 16 Jul 96 23:45:19 -0700. Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:10:54 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > >I'm still trying to understand why people think they have to run NT. >There are other options, like FreeBSD and OS/2. A lot cheaper and not >made by Microsoft. > Because NT is a very solid server OS. It is tightly integrated with the most popular application server software, Microsoft BackOffice. It is *the* most stable OS I have run. It scales well across multiple CPUs, and has a very solid multi-processor and multi-threaded kernel. NT 4.0 will have not only dynamically scheduled threads, but user- scheduled threads called fibers (that are like Sun LWPs). It runs on Intel, MIPS, DEC Alpha and PowerPC architectures. It is a lot easier to administer than a Unix box. It is more secure than OS/2 (certified C2). It runs on more hardware than OS/2 (it runs on the PowerPC chip -- an IBM processor -- that OS/2 won't even run on). It scales higher than OS/2. It has a more flexible, more stable, more secure filesystem than OS/2 (NTFS vs. HPFS). NT will run Windows 95 software. It has OpenGL 3D rendering libraries built in. It comes bundled with a very capable web browser. It comes bundled with a decent web server. It comes bundled with complete networking, including multi-protocol routing. NT 4.0 will come with Point-To-Point tunneling protocol. NT 4.0 will come with a very cool and solid CERN-compatible caching firewall and proxy server. I could go on, but this could get monotonous.... NT is not Windows 95. You asked. Sure, *I* love Unix the best, and I'll be running a version of BSD until they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers. But it's pretty unrealistic to expect someone who's main job is to run a business, to learn all the quirkiness of Unix. NT and OS/2 are just better solutions than Unix for many of these people. And NT is a better server product in so many ways than OS/2. Plus, NT is a better business "workstation" OS than Unix because of all the business applications it runs. I don't understand why people want to shoot themselves in the foot, just because they have some religious problem with Microsoft. If Microsoft makes the best keyboard, and you choose something worse with a mushy feel or a wrist-crippling legacy design, just because you can't look at the logo, your loss. If Microsoft makes the best software product for a certain use, and you insist on using something inferior just because you just because it says Microsoft on the box, your loss. What's more, I don't see why people think IBM is so much better than Microsoft. If you're against big, market-dominating companies, you might be surprised to learn that IBM is more than five times the size of Microsoft, by the number of employees. Just because their marketing sucks doesn't mean they have any less of a desire to foist their own agenda on the industry. Just look who gave us the crappy PC architecture to begin with. Sure, DOS sucks. Sure, Win16 was a model of mediocrity. Sure, Microsoft doesn't make everything the best. Sure there are many other alternatives to several of their products out there. But, specifically, OS/2 vs. NT, OS/2 has already lost the war. And that keyboard debate: buy what you want; I want the keyboard that is going to give me the most comfortable touch-typing feel, and by coincidence, it also happens to have a Microsoft logo on it. This is clearly outside the focus for freebsd-current. Please direct followups to freebsd-chat, and/or private mail. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3, Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32... NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others... Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative. If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------