From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 14 12:00:36 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA08497 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 12:00:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from phaeton.artisoft.com (phaeton.Artisoft.COM [198.17.250.50]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id MAA08492 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 12:00:32 -0800 (PST) Received: (from terry@localhost) by phaeton.artisoft.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id MAA01308; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 12:51:29 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199703141951.MAA01308@phaeton.artisoft.com> Subject: Re: pcvt/132 columns To: james@wgold.demon.co.uk (James Mansion) Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 12:51:29 -0700 (MST) Cc: FreeBSD-hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <3327C3FC.3BDF@wgold.demon.co.uk> from "James Mansion" at Mar 13, 97 09:08:12 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk This is a stupid thread, but... > > Will you accept Tannebaum as a reference, or is that too prejudicial? 8-). > > No, I will not accept Tannenbaum. Deitel, others? > > Would *you* accept that the common language usage suggests that it is an > OS, and that some of your criticisms of it are unfounded? If you will accept common language usage suggests that "IRC is Cyberspace" in the Gibsonian definition. > Do you believe that real time environments that do not preemtively > schedule and/or do not have full memory protection are not 'operating > systems'? I think full memory protection for processes is a requirement. An RT system, as long as it runs "drivers" instead of "processes" still qualifies. The issue is not when a protection domain is crossed, but whether or not there are protections domains *to* cross. > The list of systems currently accepted as operating systems but that > will be ruled out by one or more of your criteria is quite long. I know. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.