From: sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Stephen Tweedie) Subject: Re: Linux beoming a real choice? Date: 11 Jun 1993 15:06:10 GMT
On 9 Jun 93 15:26:29 GMT, richb@jti.com (Rich Braun) said:
> But that doesn't say much. Unix appears to be fading in the face of
> new operating systems. If as someone else suggested in this thread
> SCO has sold < 1 million copies of its Unix products, total, then the
> number of people using SCO's products today is roughly equal to the
> number of additional people who will be starting to use Microsoft
> Windows 3.1 next month.
> Just to keep things in perspective.
What new operating systems? Windows NT? OS/2 2.1? Great single-user
systems, sure, but they won't replace Unix because they just ain't
multi-user. Unix has had X for years, but Microsoft and IBM still
haven't got a graphical user interface which can be automatically run
remotely. NeXTstep, Solaris and Univel have a real opportunity to
bring this advantage home, and NeXT at least has a user interface
every bit as good as Windows'.
Sun claims that a huge amount of software is currently being ported to
Solaris.
I know, there are remote session managers for Windows, but you still
can't run a seamlessly integrated Windows session running applications
on several remote machines from one Windows terminal. Unix has a way
to go in terms of ease of use, but it supports distributed, multi-user
computing right from the start. As PCs become more powerful, I expect
that this ease of sharing massive computing resources amongst many
users will become an increasingly important factor for many
purchasers. Unix may well fit the bill.
Unix ain't dead, because in at least this one battlefield it has no
competition on the PC.
If any operating system appears to be fading, I would say it is
DOS/Windows. Unix will never achieve anything like the level of
ubiquitous presence that DOS has enjoyed, but I do think it will
continue to be a major player in the PC operating systems field.
Cheers,
Stephen.