Re: How is typical home computer used today?
On 09/12/2014, Marty <martyb@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
<snip>
>
> Unix and X were developed around time-sharing, and are showing their
> age. Here is a quote from a document I came across recently:
>
> """
> What was wrong with Unix?
> "Not only is UNIX dead, it’s starting to smell really bad."
> − Rob Pike circa 1991
>
Without knowing what "Rob Pike" was, from memory, that time ("circa
1991") was about when the 80486 was the latest CPU in "personal
computers", and I distinctly remember being told by a university
lecturer ( in other words, a person who probably knew what he was
talking about), in a computer hardware and operating systems lecture,
that UNIX was then the only operating system available, that could use
the functionality of the 80486 CPU, which (from memory, and, I may be
wrong) introduced virtal machines, in addition to virtual memory
(which, I think, was introduced with the 80386 CPU).
And, this WAS before the Internet, as it is known; at that time, what
existed, was ARPANet and its nodes, including, in Australia, AARNet.
At that time, from memory, at a local Linux Users Group meeting, the
meeting was told, by the presenter at the meeting (a local Linux
guru), that Linux (which, at that time, had not yet reached version
1), had just been ported to the 80386 CPU.
A also remember, at one time, having seen, in a local Compaq
dealership, a Compaq 80386 based computer, that had 32MB RAM, that
could apparently service about 32 users.
Whether bigots like it or not, BSD is still around, and, is still in
use, and, is stiull undergoing development, in its arious forms.
And, BSD is UNIX.
Oh, and, I am not either a current (direct) UNIX user, or, a UNIX
advocate (I still have not been able to successfuly install PC_BSD).
I just object to such sweeping statements of male ovine faeces.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
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