Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 03:34:46 -0700 From: Tim Gerchmez <fewtch@serv.net> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: How important is "the OS?" Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980625033446.00809730@mx.serv.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
It's interesting to me to note that in the Unix philosophy, the OS itself is of prime importance, to some *nixers even more so than what you *USE* the OS for (this might sound silly at first, but think about it). The reason this is interesting to me might best be explained by a fictitious modern discourse with an "average" computer user (such a person doesn't really exist, but let's pretend they do for now): (1) Q: "Does your computer run Win95?" (2) A: "Yes, it came with my computer." (3) Q: "What *IS* Win95?" (4) (puzzled look from the user, then a thoughtful look, then another puzzled look). A: "It's what I get when I turn on my computer... you know, the start button and stuff... it lets you run programs, I think..." (confused look)... In other words, the "average desktop user" doesn't even *know* what an operating system is. They have no clue. None. Keep in mind that I'm talking people who USE computers here, not people who build them, administer them, or set them up for use. To me, this explains a lot about how people in 1998 view OS's, and the reason why the *nix's are niche OS's on the desktop even though most of them are entirely free, and Microsoft is king, even though you pay through the nose for their OS's. The OS is no longer supposed to be of importance. The user is not supposed to know that an OS even exists. In fact, applications themselves are supposed to be unimportant. The paradigm of today is the document. The document "opens itself" when you click on an icon, you edit it, then it "closes itself" when you're done. You don't run programs (or at least you do so less than you used to, and it's considered bad protocol to run a program when you can open a document instead (of course, the program to edit/manipulate that document opens along with it, but you're not supposed to know that). Somehow, Unix has to catch up with this paradigm if they want any significant portion of the desktop, not just the server market. X-windows is a *bare beginning*, but if you think our "average user" is going to want to edit configuration files by hand to get the desktop look and act the way they want, you'd have me rolling on the floor laughing. Those of us who find the OS itself of interest (everyone on this list) are obviously still around, but I think we're a dying breed. Desktop computing is changing rapidly, and Unix is lagging far behind. This is a bad thing. Does anyone else agree with me? Like many others on this list, I enjoy OS's and computers (hardware/software) FOR THEMSELVES more than for what you can do with them. I like to edit configuration files (well... I can put up with it anyway, and am not daunted by it). I enjoy building and repairing computers. I like experimenting with installing and configuring OS's. These things are more interesting to me than watching multimedia clips, playing video games or doing word processing and data entry. Folks... what do we do about kids entering computing in 1998, whose first experiences involve Win95 and playing arcade games using DirectX? Who's going to be around in 20-30 years that cares any more about Unix, other than a few lost souls in their 60's who earn millions a year because they can still administer a Unix system? I think I did a poor job getting across what I was trying to say in this Email (and perhaps made no sense at all), but I hope it generates some discussion, especially among people who use multiple OS's like myself and follow the latest trends in computing. -- My web site starts at http://www.serv.net/~fewtch/index.html - lots of goodies for everyone, have a look if you have the time. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3.0.5.32.19980625033446.00809730>