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From: ajai@ffast.ffast.att.com (Ajai Khattri)
Subject: Re: Retro-Computing!
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References: <D5yxwn.5BG@sdf.saomai.org> <Pine.NXT.3.92.950330155824.2916A-100000@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU> <1995Apr1.164832.46291@cc.usu.edu> <3m0brf$cjj@alterdial.uu.net>
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 16:32:17 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <3m0brf$cjj@alterdial.uu.net>,
Bill Schultz <guru@deltanet.com> wrote:
>
>UNIX is only barely an operating system, let alone a "modern" one.  UNIX grew
>like a weed; before you knew it, there were all these pieces lying around with
>wierd names and arcane operating instructions that could only be used by
>those who had undergone a complete brain wash and reload.

I like this weed. At the time it was first released it ran counter to what
people thought a mainframe OS was. I like this subversive, hacker-ish attitude
that prevailed then. Anything that rocks the status quo is a Good Thing in
my books because it makes people sit-up and start rethinking...

>Unfortunatly, "modern" UNIX kept all of the bad attributes of original UNIX, 
>and even added some new ones.  

Yeah, but then IMHO that is because we 'standardised' on System V rather than
BSD where all the *real* cool ideas came from. And SysV r4 suffers from bloat.

>About the only decent innovation is X-Windows,
>but how useful is that if you primarily use a window in order to open up a
>command line prompt?

Only if you don't use these wonderful things called menus. ;-)

I mean, you don't even *have* to see any console prompt if you're using xdm.


Aj.
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