On Thu, 14 Jan 1999, Douglas Eadline wrote:
>
> This is an off topic response to Bob Browns last post.
> Delete if you want hard core SMP talk.
>
> Wow! What email. I just had one comment to your very
> insightful story. I always believed that the big
> impediment to UNIX on the desk top was perceived extra
> administration overhead.
>
> Let me explain. Why back when, I was looking for a 80x86 UNIX.
> After talking to many people about the idea of using UNIX, the main
> concern was administration (mounts, log files, user accounts, etc.)
> not to mention the whole notion of "start up and shutdown".
>
> In my opinion, DOS gave many users the false impression that
> using an IBM PC with MS DOS was a plug and play adminstrationless
> computer. Turn it on, do something, turn it off. I believe
> that MS effective pulled of a great marketing ploy by extending
> this belief to windows. But, as anyone knows as soon as you
> allow users and applications to shot-gun your hard disk with
> what ever files they wish you get an administrative nightmare.
> Indeed, I can not think of one "non-computer-jock user" machine
> that was not full of temp files and totally misconfigured
> for their particular needs. I even had one person who bought
> one of those uninstaller clean up programs and said, "I do not
> even understand the questions it is asking me".
>
> I think now we are seeing the results of the M$ OS mess.
> People are fed-up with the additional cost (support and administration)
> required for systems that seem to have an "ad-hoc" administration policy
> The economics of a well engineered OS (UNIX) vs. an ad-hoc OS (Windows
> 3.1, 9X) is now being understood in painful economic terms.
>
> I agree that had SUN produced a $50 UNIX for Intel, the world
> would be quite different. It would take some time to catch on
> because of the administration myth, but it would have caught on.
> It has taken some time for people learn the lesson. This is
> one reason why I believe Linux has become so popular NOW - as you
> mention. Indeed, had even Apple ported their OS to Intel,
> there would have been a real serious threat to M$ long ago.
>
> "But hey, why port our software to a non-proprietary
> hardware platform. We can make much more money selling
> our hardware at high margins, charging lot's of money for
> spare parts. Besides, only we can write an OS ..."
>
>
> Doug
Sun did realize the barn door was open, but by the time they closed
it the horses were gone. They released a PC version of Solaris, but
it was a real _dog_ performance-wise, plus it was mucho particular
about devices it supported. We installed it here on one machine as
a faculty member with Solaris on his Ultra had to have slowaris on his
PII/300 machine. We fought with that for a couple of weeks, buying
first a new CD, then a new video card, then this, then that. And when
it was finished, and he tried it for a while, it was so slow I'll be
damned if he didn't format the disk and install windows on it again.
After that, it generally sits unused. :)
While all our linux boxes are getting used 24 hours a day, I might
add. I've found linux and linuxthreads the best tool for teaching
parallel programming on a shared memory machine, of anything I have
tried to date. The stuff just works...
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