[Info-vax] Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <kes0b5$ghh$1 at dont-email.me>,
	David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> In article <kerjg4$u78$2 at dont-email.me>,
>> 	David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes:
>>> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>
>>>> Based on the popularity of things like the comp.sources.* groups I really
>>>> don't think NIH was a problem in the Unix world.
>>> Oh, really ????
>>>
>>> Then why do we have Linux ????
>> 
>> Don't get me started.....
> 
> Apparently I just did ....
> 
>> Linux is the product of one child's ego based on a false premise from
>> the very beginning.  Or, to quote henry Spencer, "Those who do not learn
>> from UNIX are doomed to reinvent it poorly."
> 
> The way I read this is that you're taking a stance 180 degrees opposite 
> your supposition above, re: NIH not a problem on Unix.

Read my lips.  Linux is not Unix.
> 
>>> Or for that matter, why so many different Unixes ????
>> 
>> The differences in the various true Unix versions are trivial at best.
>> The biggest differences are in the proprietary Unixes where they were
>> delibrately introduced in an attempt to differentiate a product, garner
>> more sales and lock customers in.  I think it is fairly safe to conclude
>> at this point that the real Unixes [Free|Open|Net]BSD are similar to point
>> that there is no program written for one that will not compile and run on
>> another.  And that they outsnumber the proprietary Unixes in number of
>> installed systems.
> 
> Trivial or not, there is a duplication of effort, without much of 
> anything new or different.

The difference between the BSD is more packaging than anythng else.
They freely share and incoporate each others work.  They just have
different ideas of what they want Unix to do.

> 
> But let's go a bit further.  DECUS.  Not just VAX or VMS, but the entire 
> community of DEC users.  Vast library of shared software.  Many people 
> using the library instead of re-inventing their wheels.  Yes, including 
> Unix software.  I'd suggest that the DECUS library is the opposite of NIH.

Except that a very common adttitude I have seen in VMS shops is if it
didn't come inbinary on a layered products disk it will not be running
on our production machines.  I believe AEF mentioned that he works on
lots of machines that will not let him install other programs.  And even
The University I worked at which used to have thiings like Emacs and Pine
and some other usefull open source stuff made the decision that none of
that stuff would be supported any more.  I think most Unix systems are
much more willing to run open source.  I know that on the systems I
admined I would run anything that was available in source, would compile
on our systems and would not adversely impact performance.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>