CompuServe Messages

Ben, > Longevity is no recommendation… True, but I was answering a specific statement you made, and my answer to it was not aimed at justification through longevity. > MS-DOS is running on more machines than Unix is… No it isn't. Well, it is if you count every individual machine. What I meant (and perhaps didn't make clear) was that Unix is running on more varied platforms than MsDos (other than in software emulations, etc.). Unix is a real OS, as compared with the primitive program loader that is MsDos (and you can say the same thing about Amigados). > small machines are taking over the desk. True, and many of them run Unix, and put more power on the desk than any MsDos machine ever will. While the industry has a fairly specific definition of what constitutes a 'workstation, you will find that many vendors are claiming workstationness, and are aiming their software toward providing the benefits of same. The demand for workstations is tremendous, whether or not they are really workstations or not. In North America, CBM has traditionally been a supplier of _HOME_ computers, and Unix does not fit well into this niche. It requires a fair amount of knowledge to keep it running smoothly and efficiently; far more knowledge than the average home user is willing to acquire. As for magazines… there are lots, whether or not they appear in B Daltons. This is analogous to the many other special-interest publications that don't appear in the average bookstores. [more]