[ncolug] Re: Minix3
- From: larry <larry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncolug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 19:07:06 -0500
Henry Keultjes wrote:
larry wrote:
I think what you are trying to say is the following:
"I want an operating environment, where I can play around with stuff
like I/O, security, and screen formatting, just by editing some text
files."
"Furthermore, I would like to be able to make various hardware, no
matter how old, work in this environment, again simply by editing
some text files."
"Finally, I would like to customize the applications that run in this
environment, by (you guessed it) editing some text files.
Does that sum it up, Henry?
Indeed!
Henry
Good, I am glad we established this.
The reason you could "play around with screen formatting" back then was
that the screen was an 80x25 matrix of alphabetic characters. (This was
also back in the days when running an application meant that you needed
to know how to READ - but I am not going to go down that road right now.)
The reason I/O was easily configurable via text files in Pick was
because of the limited hardware support. If you look at what hardware
was actually supported on the incarnation of Pick that ran on an NCR
Tower, for example, you could practically name the items on one hand -
maybe 2 or 3 models of tape drive, a couple disk drives, that was pretty
much it.
The part of my original message where I said, "...various hardware, no
matter how old," was thrown in simply because I know that's what you
would like. Yet, it is the only part that was never true for Pick, or
any other OS. Of course, Linux is about 500% more likely to support any
given "old hardware" compared to any other OS, but even that has it's
limits.
Releases of Pick were frozen in time just like any other OS, and a given
release supported whatever hardware the company who ported it wanted it
to. Your big problem, as I see it, is that there are no qualified
engineers (working for large hardware vendors or not,) who have any
incentive to do a port to modern hardware. Why not?
The hardware industry has changed since the 80's. The steady price
erosion of computing hardware in general means, basically, that if you
want to make any money whatsoever on computer hardware, you had better
be Chinese. (Taiwanese, to be exact.) This led to standardization and
commoditization of all but the largest computing hardware.
Next, (we are in the 90's now) we had standardization and
commoditization of the OS, which, as many have said here, is no more
than "an extension of the hardware" to most users.
So, back to the present, we now have an array of 2 or 3 low cost (or no
cost) operating environments to choose from, compared to the 80's. No
one really cares what hardware they need to run on, as long as they can
get the whole solution for less $ than last year.
No one wants to port an old OS to modern hardware, because Linux and
Windows are available, supported, and cheap. Engineers are very
practical people.
You may say, "...but today's server OS's aren't cheap!" Oh yes they are.
A copy of Pick, when it was popular, went for several thousand (1980's)
dollars. When they later replaced it with Unix, the price was only a
little less. And don't forget, the hardware was MORE than the OS. The
typical Tower solution that was still running all Phar-Mor pharmacies
(are they still in business?) only ten years ago, was around $25,000.
That was for a 68040 processor running Unix to drive a dozen or so dumb
terminals.
So my point on hardware is, "you have to go with the flow." You aren't
going to see text-file configuration of hardware any more, because
hardware is way more complex, the options are endless, and the
manufacturers of hardware are spread all over Asia. Not to mention that
there's just a lot more of it to choose from in the first place. This
dictates that we are still at the mercy of hardware manufacturers (just
different ones.)
I do have some good news, though... the "application customization via
text files" part - that is alive and well, and oddly enough, is the
subject of my presentation next month.
--
Did you ever hear the story of the consultant who is called in to fix an
important machine in the factory. He walks around the machine 3 times
scratching his head and suddenly stops. Then he asks for a hammer. He whacks
the machine real hard and it starts to work again. Everybody is happy. The
plant manager asks the consultant for a bill and he says $10,001.00. The plant
manager says I dont have a problem with the $10,000.00, but what is the $1.00
for? The consultant replies the $1.00 is for whacking and $10,000.00 is for
knowing where to whack it.
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