Re: [tlug] Unix's 40th Birthday

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2009-08-20 22:57 +0900 (Thu), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> Missing quote: "Unix really *is* the operating system for the
> Internet: most of the 'switches' that direct your network connections
> to the computer that has the data you need run Unix."

I'm not buying that one without some evidence. Cisco and the other big
router vendors have been and still are pretty darn popular, and for
good reason: they can shovel a lot more packets for a given amount of
hardware than Unix systems. Keep in mind, it's pretty rare for a Unix
box to have more than a couple of 10gigE interfaces, whereas a router
with just that wouldn't even be considered high-end.

> Wonder how many routers will be running Windows 7 by the end of the
> year? ;-)

Well, Windows has never had any real share of the router market beyond
SOHO use, mainly because it's just as bad as Unix at moving the data,
and has even worse tools.

On 2009-08-20 22:43 +0900 (Thu), Sotaro Kobayashi wrote:

> "It got us away from the total control that businesses
> like IBM and DEC had over us."
> 
> BBC has reminded me that the same fortune could fall upon the current
> dinosaurs - MS.

I'd be curious as to why you think so, since Windows did exactly what
Unix did to get users away from that total control: let you run your
programs on commodity hardware purchased from one of many vendors, all
of whom are in cutthroat competition with one another.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974
           Functional programming in all senses of the word:
                   http://www.starling-software.com