From: ketil@spurv.ii.uib.no (Ketil M. Malde) Subject: Re: BYTE asks, is UNIX dead? Date: 28 Sep 1992 21:05:08
In article <3725@eastman.UUCP> talley@ashleigh.Kodak.COM (Brian K. Talley) writes:
[...]
> A closer scrutiny
>of the article proved it's just the otherwise.
Interesting. I didn't buy Byte this month, partly because of the crap on
the cover. As such, I wasn't aware of the contents of the article.
Well, did it now? My impression was that, sure, NT has (will have)
some advantages over UNIX, while UNIX also has some advantages over
NT. (Mostly networking, I think). That most Unices probably will run
Ms-DOS and Windows apps long befor NT runs at all, wasn't mentioned,
(as far as I remember)
Propaganda? Hell, yes! Look at IBM! Look at Microsoft! They didn't get
where they are by creating great software and selling it cheap! Of course,
there's often a fine line between "Quality Marketing" and propaganda. :}
And yes, these folks are smart, in their own weird, twisted way.
Yeah. And they're the havyweights that rule the market. If MS wants
Byte to proclaim Unix dead, Byte will do so, or be squashed to death,
I am afraid. I suppose that's what they call 'business' in the Real
World(tm)
Let's put it this way: when I saw the cover of Byte, I mumbled to myself
"...of course it's not dead, you f*ckhead...". My assumption was that many
a brain-dead executive would read that and think "Hmmm...once NT comes out,
that'll mean the end of Unix!"
What worries me most, is that NT doesn't even *exist* yet! While Unix
is already up and running in several different incantations(?) *today*
Money rules, and it is the scourge of all free software.
Unfortunately. I mean, how much coverage have you seen in serious
magazines about Gnu, FSF, and several of your favorite free software?
Sure, they've been mentioned occasionally, but never realy taken
seriously. Ever seen gcc compared to other C's in the market? I
haven't. An all because it is *free* (and thus most value for money,
beating everything else, thus leading the other C manufacturers down
the drain, magazine lose ad money..*sigh*) I'll stop now. :-)
BUT: Perhaps we could start letter campaigns to get more coverage for
free software? Mail a letter to Byte or whatever, ask for reviews etc
of Gnu stuff, and other free software. Perhaps it would be possible
to get hardware manufacturers on our side? Now that Dell issues their
own Unix, how about getting Gateway or someone to give out a
'commercial' (that is stable and polished) version of Linux, or
something?
I'll stop *now* :-)