LARRY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA (08/07/84)
From: Larry Carroll <LARRY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA> What Little of S1 Corp. says about Unix and CP/M is essentially true. What he implies I very much doubt: that his company's S1 operating system is superior and the wave of the future. In the first place, a new product has to be marketed well. Compare the ads for S1 to those of AT&T, Digital Research, and Microsoft--S1s makes grandiose claimsin an unattractive format. Try to talk to the people they send to places like Comdex--unless you claim to be someone with the power to buy several hundred copies of their product you'll be ignored. More important, Unix, CP/M, and MS-DOS has a huge sociological base of knowledge-able people who can make the micro-Trinity work for their employers. And thereis a software base of applications programs that do useful work. Lastly, the sellers of Unix, CP/M, and MS-DOS are not standing still. The threeoperating systems are coming ever closer together; industry-wide standards are being developed, though we still have a long and painful transition time ahead of us. I wish S1 or someone could spare us the problems we have today and will continue to have through the transition period, but I don't see any realistic hope for their revolutionary tactics. Larry @ jpl-vlsi ------