edwardj@microsoft.UUCP (Edward JUNG) (02/14/91)
I think there has been alot of confusion over Unix and Microsoft. This is largely because many people do not know the history of modern Unix. I don't like defending Microsoft (it's not my job), but I like mis- information even less. No sniping here, just the facts. 1. Microsoft's Unix work was licensed to AT&T as part of the merge that created SysV. All modern AT&T Unix contain Microsoft work and royalties. 2. The derivative Unix for '386, called Xenix, is the best selling Unix in the world. (Note I did not say "is the best Unix in the world"!) 3. At one time, all Microsoft development was done on Unix. 4. HPFS is a file system that runs on OS/2, and thus is pretty comparable to BSD FFS, and yes, it's faster. 5. Although there has been work involving Microsoft applications on Unix, this is not to what Gordon was referring. Also I would like to add (as someone who was closely associated with Apple before joining the "evil empire") that the "fast and loose" tricks that Microsoft apps played with the Macintosh were all passed by Apple's Developer Support at one time. They are very old tricks that predated Apple's more forward-thinking of today. They did cause Apple grief when they rev'd the OS, but please recall that it used to be OK to munge the upper bits on handles (as a matter of fact, samples of this appeared in Apple's code examples). Microsoft applications have been 32-bit clean since Apple starting promoting 32-bit cleanliness. Very few early apps are 32 bit clean. I have programmed significant projects in nearly every system from JCL to pure Mach, from Amiga to Sun to Macintosh to NeXT. I have no doubt whatsoever that the NeXT system is the most pleasant to program -- bar none. I love it. The advanced product group at Lotus loves it. Lots of people love it. The NeXT system is one of the very few that has a real system architecture behind it. On the other hand, mod familiarity issues, I enjoy programming OS/2 more than Unix (although neither is something I'd call really "pleasant"!) If anyone can get really concrete about why they like Unix over OS/2 (mod familiarity), then I'd be interested in knowing so I can feed back such information to the OS group (via EMAIL, please). Also, for the last time, you guys will be among the first to know when Microsoft does anything on the NeXT machine. At this time there is nothing to say about it. So stop sending me mail about it. -- Edward Jung Microsoft Corp. My opinions do not reflect any policy of my employer.
sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) (02/19/91)
In article <70662@microsoft.UUCP> edwardj@microsoft.UUCP (Edward JUNG) writes: >2. The derivative Unix for '386, called Xenix, is the best > selling Unix in the world. (Note I did not say "is the > best Unix in the world"!) XENIX runs on '286s (well, and xt's, if you want to count them 8-)) as well; the 286's are the reasons for the "best selling," I believe. -- Sean Eric Fagan | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it; sef@kithrup.COM | I had a bellyache at the time." -----------------+ -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_) Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.
bb@shark.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew) (02/25/91)
In article <70662@microsoft.UUCP> edwardj@microsoft.UUCP (Edward JUNG) writes: > 2. The derivative Unix for '386, called Xenix, is the best > selling Unix in the world. (Note I did not say "is the > best Unix in the world"!) In article <1991Feb18.180523.12409@kithrup.COM> sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) writes: > XENIX runs on '286s (well, and xt's, if you want to count them 8-)) as > well; the 286's are the reasons for the "best selling," I believe. ---- Actually, the real reason is that quite a few large corperations (McDonald's Hamburgers, for instance) use a cash register/inventory system where the "cash registers" are actually terminals driven off a XENIX system in the back of the store. -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brian Bartholomew UUCP: ...gatech!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!bb University of Florida Internet: bb@math.ufl.edu