[net.unix] Amusement: TOPS-20 vs. VMS vs. Unix

Us.Travis%CU20B@COLUMBIA.ARPA (12/17/84)
Date: Sat 15 Dec 84 21:16:05-PST
From: Mark Crispin <MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
Subject: Amusement: TOPS-20 vs. VMS vs. Unix
To: TOPS-20@SU-SCORE.ARPA
Postal-Address: 725 Mariposa Ave. #103; Mountain View, CA 94041
Phone: (415) 497-1407 (Stanford); (415) 968-1052 (residence)

     The following comes from DECWORLD, an internal DEC
publication.  Most of the issue is devoted to how great LCG and
its customers are.  Each article usually ends withs something
about "...and now we're giving them integration...".  Digital
pats itself on the back.
 
	One of the questions that comes up all the time
	is: How enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?
 
	UNIX was written on our machines and for our 
	machines many years ago.  Today, much of UNIX
	being done is done on our machines.  Ten percent
	of our VAXs are going for UNIX use.  UNIX is a
	simple language, easy to understand, easy to get
	started with.  It's great for students, great for
	somewhat casual users, and it's great for inter-
	changing programs between different machines.
	And so, because of its popularity in these markets,
	we support it.  We have good UNIX on VAX and good
	UNIX on PDP-11s.
 
	It is our belief, however, that serious profess-
	ional users will run out of things they can do
	with UNIX.  They'll want a real system and will
	end up doing VMS when they get to be serious
	about programming.
 
	With UNIX, if you're looking for something,
	you can easily and quickly check that small
	manual and find out that it's not there.  With
	VMS, no matter what you look for -- it's literally
	a five-foot shelf of documentation -- if you
	look long enough it's there.  That's the
	difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's simple;
	and the beauty of VMS is that it's all there.
 
     The most ironic thing is another article that starts with
"One architecture, one software system".
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