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Re: UNIX in Perspective (was: Re: DOS and Macro Virus Discussion)
The point I was trying to make was simply that the UNIX vendors put
no resources into fixing problems with UNIX that could have been fixed
for a tiny proportion of the profits it made for AT&T.
The serious problem I have with UNIX-dom is that the gaping flaws in
UNIX were not recognised as such - in many cases they were celebrated.
The need for shadow passwords was very obvious but suggestions that
this be made the UNIX standard were decried as "security through
obscurity" and the text that claimed that making the password file
world readable was enshirned as holy UNIX lore. The fact that the guy
who wrote it was running the NSA at the time passed the UNIX
appologists by.
For 1970 UNIX is not a bad system. The problem was that UNIX became
a major O/S fifteen years later when it was technically obsolete.
I don't think that the claim that WNT is the successor to UNIX holds
for a moment. Cutler's contempt for C is apparent in the compiler he
wrote. WNT is very clearly the successor to Culter's earlier systems,
ELN and VMS.
Its all very well for programmers to think they design systems for
programmers. Really what they are doing is designing systems for
experts. There is little that is technically innovative about the
Web. What made it a success was that it was designed from a users
perspective and not from that of a technocrat looking to increase his
job security through obscurantism.
Phill
References: