From: sdw@lig.net (Stephen D. Williams)
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 95 20:05:48 PST
To: datadec@cs.UCR.edu (Kevin Marcus)
Subject: Re: Clinton freezes U.S. assets of Mideast groups
In-Reply-To: <199501260357.TAA07311@cs.UCR.EDU>
Message-ID: <m0rXGoq-0009t3C@sdwsys>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


...
> > <Obviously still irritated that companies think (or know...) that
> > they can eek out more money by reinventing instead of refurbishing
> > or augmenting something flexible enough to do anything they want.
> > Face it: there is nothing I can't add to a Unix system, and it wouldn't
> > have to affect existing programs one bit.>
> 
> Unfortunately, however, there are a lot of things that a lot of people can't
> do in a unix system.  Unix is probably the most widely used unfriendly
> cryptic, and complicated operating system today.  With the upcoming of
> Linux, this will probably change somewhat in the future, but until I can
> teach my secretary how she can use latex to type and print her letters, we
> are going to be stuck with getting us whatever the bastards at MicroSoft
> think we want.
> 

While in a way what you say is true, latex isn't Unix, the shell isn't the
only interface to Unix, etc.  Unixware's setup was an example.  Solaris's
isn't too bad (setup printers, mounts, user accounts, ttys (kinda)), etc.
Put Frame, WP, MS Word (some version at least), Lotus 123, Powerbuilder
(was going to be out end 94, haven't kept track), etc. on a Unix
system that boots to xdm and you have a pretty darn good replacement
for Windows/NT/OS2, etc.

With any kind of support staff, Unix systems are much smoother and robust
than PCs.  I've seen it at several really large sites.  No comparison.

Ok, I guess I'm getting 'religious' here, which isn't the place...

sdw
-- 
Stephen D. Williams    25Feb1965 VW,OH      sdw@lig.net http://www.lig.net/sdw
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