home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: comp.arch
- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!dxcern!dscomsa!zeus02.desy.de!hallam
- From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
- Subject: Re: <None> (Should be Open Systems, bloody NEWS system...)
- Message-ID: <BzGL07.2wK@dscomsa.desy.de>
- Sender: usenet@dscomsa.desy.de (usenet)
- Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
- Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA
- References: <1992Nov30.160802.22319@e2big.mko.dec.com> <41801@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> <jdd.723756690@cdf.toronto.edu> <1992Dec9.193616.2813@lsl.co.uk> <jdd.724022716@cdf.toronto.edu> <1992Dec14.191335.2834@lsl.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 14:16:55 GMT
- Lines: 73
-
- In article <1992Dec14.191335.2834@lsl.co.uk>, snail@lsl.co.uk writes:
-
- |>In article <jdd.724022716@cdf.toronto.edu>, jdd@cdf.toronto.edu (John DiMarco)
- |>writes:
-
- |>> My basic point is this: A system's "openness" is a measure of its
- |>> replaceability by a system from another vendor. By this standard, VAX/VMS
- |>is
- |>> not very open, and random-workstation/UNIX-variant is more but not
- |>completely
- |>> open.
- |>
- |>I'll go along with that.
-
-
- Complete codswallop. By this definition the most "open" system is a house brick.
- It is trivial to port any application that runs on a house brick to any other
- system.
-
- Functionality also comes into it. If people write programs that require high
- levels of functionality from an O/S then they are going to be less portable.
- Does this mean that the O/S should as a result be regarded as being better if it
- provides less features?
-
- Consider any application written for a line mode terminal using FORTRAN I/O. The
- portability of these programs was pretty much setttled a long time ago. On the
- other hand any code using a windows system soon becomes a porting hazard. On
- UNIX there are even difficulties in porting code from one UNIX system to another
- of the model and from the same vendor. This is because sysops tend to want to
- split up large libraries amongst disks and UNIX does not provide a mechanism
- like logical names which allow a user to virtualize a disk system to make it
- look like something else. Logical links don't count in this regard, they affect
- the system environment.
-
-
- |>> So far, the most "open" system I can think of is a 386 running DOS:
- |>> - systems available from all sorts of people
- |>> - CPU's available from (at least) AMD, Intel, IBM, and Cyrix
- |>
- |>Well, scrap Intel from the list :-), oh and IBM since they second source
- |>Intel
-
- Not IBM's choice of course, remember Microchannel and OS/2 and what IBM tried to
- pull then?
-
- |>> - DOS available from Microsoft and Digital Research (and IBM if you count
- |>> OS/2 as a DOS replacement), with pretty much complete binary and source
- |>> compatibility between them.
- |>
- |>Yes, I don't like Intel, simply, 680X0 are better, but they let the
- |>investment
- |>slide and domesDOS is.....and do I understand this correctly that Windows NT
- |>is a multiprocessing, multitasking *SINGLE* user system? Is that right or
- |>did something hit me over the head whilst I was sleeping?
-
- UNIX is a single user system too. The only evidence of a multiuser capability is
-
- I would guess that W/NTs single user functionality should outstrip that of UNIX
- fairly easily. I bet that in '94 or whenever Microsoft will be comming out with
- a "Multiuser" extension. After all their continued existence depends on always
- being able to offer additional functionality.
-
- W/NT on introduction will of course have to cope with the CP/M filestore which
- it inherited from MSDOS. Once pure W/NT apps become avaliable it will be
- possible to use some of the more high flutin' ones. Security in a multiuser
- environment is provided in the main by the filestore. Better to deliver a
- system which can run existing apps for starters and move up to better systems
- than have the initial OS/2 "throw it all away approach."
-
-
- --
-
- Phill Hallam-Baker
-