[amsat-bb] RE: [OT] OS Rant

[Mark West <markw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris:

Good post, good points. First off, what do you mean by
Microsoft OS, are you referring to 95/98 or NT, because
the two kernals have nothing in common with each other. 

I can see that you have allot of trouble with your MS OS. 
I do not have these problems, either at home or at work 
with my server farm complete with DCOM. I had done much 
development on Unix, from a multi proc real-time Concurrent, 
to embedded microcontrollers, before moving to NT, and I'll 
never look back. I am surprised that you find (write) aps, 
other than device drivers, that can bring down the 
current version of NT, as I cannot. 

You are painfully correct about a great number of 'power
users' calling themselves programmers. I have ineterviewed
many of late, by their resume's and referrals you would
think they were gods, but in the end most of them have
managed little more than a database query via VB. These
people stay away from Unix because it scares them, so
Unix shops usually don't have opportunity to employ them,
and would not hire them if given the opportunity. This may 
have allot to do with the attitude that NT is not a real OS.

My advice to you, make sure the NT programmers you work with
are good at what they do, you will be much happier with
your NT aps. I have some of the best, and that is why I am
happy with NT.

- Mark West

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Cox [mailto:cobox@urec.net]
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 8:36 AM
To: Mark West; amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org
Subject: [OT] OS Rant


First off, 

I am sorry Mark for replying in a emotional way, it does nothing but
be-little a point of view.

After deploying my apps on various flavors of Unix and Windows, I have come
to the conclusion that *nix like OSes are much more stable, robust, and
require much less maintenance. This becomes obvious to anyone who has
deployed in both environments, just from the service call logs.

Windows has many more commercial Apps available for it. This proliferation
has led to manufactures writing better installation and maintenance
software to address their market. This is obviously good.

But the Windows OS has a fundamental problem with program
intercommunication. This might be because of the creators desire for
seamless object communication, which Windows never really accomplices, but
seems to do better than most. The resultant problems now stem through
generations of the OS with DLL's, VBX's OCX's under no version control.
Application A now breaks Application B, sometimes the whole OS. D-COM was
to address this (in a way), but I believe it may be late. Remember, this is
a cooperative multitasker, if an app does not cooperate, things stop. 

The Windows OS is an enabling tool, no doubt. Now we see a lot of power
users touting themselves as Developers, System Analysis's and programmers,
who through their works are exacerbating the problem with the stability of
the OS, but admittedly bringing some cool applications to bear.

Why Mandrake was important is because of their easy "drop in CD"
installation. It was, by far, the easiest OS to install I have ever come
across, including Microsoft's. But I deplore what Mandrake is doing to
Linux. They seem to be breaking all the fundamental rules of OS development
in the name of progress. This actually pays off in  the first couple of
iterations, but can and is having a cumulative effect of its reliability.

Can I deploy *nix across desktops to say, Grandmother? You bet! If there is
a problem, I can remotely access the system and remedy it. As a developer,
I have many more resource to create an app. But the problem is the lack of
applications for the OS, not that the OS itself. Why? *nix cost big bucks
in the beginning. Judging by Sun's service plans, they must still have this
mentality, not to mention Oracle....:-)

So, yes the *nix OS is vastly better that MS Windows. We have to hang signs
on our boxes stating "Do Not turn off, Do Not Reboot" because of the MS
Windows/PC mentality.

Just wish there where more apps (As I author this on a MS product, hoping
it will not lockup before I am done).

Later

Christopher Cox
----
Via the amsat-bb mailing list at AMSAT.ORG courtesy of AMSAT-NA.
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe amsat-bb" to Majordomo@amsat.org