[comp.windows.news] What is UNIX? Re: Is SUN a "PURE PLAYER" in window systems - SunView or OpenWindows??

peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (01/04/90)

> >Now it may be that Sun, AT&T, and Berkeley have forgotten their roots.
> I believe the above three define the label UNIX.

I don't. UNIX is a family of operating systems based on a uniform device
interface concept, with a common programming interface and a common set
of utilities. I'm writing this message on a System-III based Xenix box.
I could be using anything from a PC-XT running Minix to a Sequent Balance
running whatever they run... and the system would look pretty much the
same.

Here you are saying "X is just a label", when it's even more closely tied
into the implementation than UNIX, and then pegging UNIX as BSD+SYSV.

I wish you were right. Because X is a horrible design.

The first rule of system design is: make the easy things easy, then make
the hard things possible. This is best done by providing a simple unifying
concept that defines the system. I've not heard a lot about Apollo Domain, but
what I have heard is typical of pre-UNIX proprietary systems: lots of
complex system calls and data structures, I/O tied closely to the hardware.
And X is certainly complex to use.

Am I wrong? What's the simple unifying concept for DomainOS? Or X?
-- 
 _--_|\  Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>.
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