Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 00:14:36 +0100 From: Roelof Osinga <roelof@nisser.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: "Albert D. Cahalan" <acahalan@cs.uml.edu>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: OT: non-Unix history (Was: FreeBSD vs linux) Message-ID: <3A6F61DC.39E9CF0D@nisser.com> References: <14957.31196.939559.889627@guru.mired.org> <3A6F43F7.E43C6CA0@nisser.com> <14959.23870.728403.859934@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer wrote: > > ... > There are *lots* of potential reasons, many of them good ones. The > issue about machine speed shows up in the infamous "Worse is better" > paper, and I talk about this particular case in my "Good enough is > best" paper <URL: http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/good-enough.html > > (which provides pointers to "Worse is better" as well as covering the > salient features). Sorry Mike, but there is a *lot* of information Out There. Can't read it all. If not only 'coz I then would have to pull my head out of that warm and cozy brown place <g>. > Actually, Ultrix is a BSD derivative, and didn't require a SysV > license. But they changed it later. Ditto for Sun and Mips - both > started on BSD with a SysIII license, then went to SysV. But The Unix > market splintering that way was what "the kernel APIs being different" > was referring to. You couldn't port an application to Unix - you had > to port it to each variant. Since VMS - and later NT - were usually a > larger market than any single Unix vendor, even if it wasn't as big as > all of them put together, it got preference. Yeah, I know. Does Bill Joy really need mentioning? Still, I wasn't there. I was stuck on this side of the 'pond'. Hence all second hand info. Not by choice, just by circumstance. That does not mean I agree on the point of API difference. Apps got ported allright, back then. They just didn't execute good enough. No fancy title will change that impression for me <g>. Besides, the mini market really was on its way out in those days. Even the mainframe market - or especially if you believe the trade rags - felt the heet. So porting... What porting. I know it was conceived to be a big issue, but just a minor one to me. Accorind to Murphy's Law I am of course wrong in this :). [Hm. Still got a honest to whatever 16 bit, fridge sized, mini standing in the corner, supporting an 80386SX Novell server :)]. > Later, of course, WordPerfect started running on nearly anything - I > even had an Amiga vesion at one point. Yeah, but "alas", too little, too late. The quote because I'm more of a WordStar guy myself. Those keys are hardwired into my nervous system. No amount of vi, emacs, or whatever experience will change that. What is truly a pits is using all three (i.e. jstar, vi, emacs) at the same time in different xterms. Or shells, for that matter. Ah well, LSATYD (Buddha, ~500 BC ;). Roelof -- Home is where the (@) http://eboa.com/ is. Nisser home -- http://nl.nisser.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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