Berkeley -vs- Godzilla

[mike%brl-vgr at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:      Mike Muuss <mike at brl-vgr>

Dave -

When the "standard" version of UNIX from AT&T begins to stay "state of
the art", and offers decent network support, virtual memory, fast
disk I/O, etc, etc -- THEN, and only then, will I embrace the "standard".

Alas, (I had best duck the incomming missiles), the word "standard"
brings to mind things like COBOL, and ADA.  Useful items, with
an important place in the world -- as long as it is far away from me!
The only good standard that comes to mind in recent times is TCP/IP.
(But thats another story).

Now, in this specific instance (AT&T -vs- Berkeley), things are
not so cut-and-dried;  Berkeley has the hottest kernel, but Bell
has the best polish.  Improved utilities, better manuals, etc, etc.
And, in the finest tradition of hacking ...er, ahem... computer science,
BRL is doing something about it!  Thanks to the tireless efforts of
Mr. Douglas Gwyn here at BRL, there now exists a full System V
environment operating and co-existing with the 4.2 BSD environment
(well, 4.1c, until our bloody 4.2 tape gets here).  Merely by
diddling your $PATH variable, you can chose which world you
wish to live in.  (Me?  I have two CSH aliases "sysv" and "std",
to let me switch between them).

So, what should everybody else do?  For sites with "smarts",
buy a System V license, bring up 4.2 BSD, add on the BRL
System_V-on-4.2, and enjoy the best of both worlds.
The rest of you folks get to sit and suffer!  Welcome
to the wonderful world of VENDOR SUPPORT.  Yes, you too
can discover that vendor support for UNIX can be as bad
as vendor support for VMS, or for NOS, or for OS/VS2, or for .....
Go lean on your vendor.  See where it gets you.

A good example of vendor support might be the integration of
TCP/IP into vendor operating systems.  TCP for VMS?  No.
TCP for AT&T UNIX?  No.  TCP for VM?  No.  Not from the vendors.
Funny thing is, TCP is even a standard.  And DoD buys ~7 % of all
the computers in America.  Army has even been paying vendors to
develop TCP, for inclusion in their "standard" operating system.
Generous, huh?  Well, it's over a year late.  "Standard vendor support".
(Yuck -- the 3 words I hate most, in 1 sentence!  I can't stand it).

Being big doesn't help.  DEC doesn't care.  AT&T doesn't care.
IBM doesn't care.  At least Berkeley (with a few $M from DARPA)
had the guts to go out and build a system that's pretty close
to "state of the art" for this generation of operating system.
For that we should thank Bill Joy and Sam Leffler and the rest
of the gang at Berkeley.

		Tired of "Standard" and Looking for "Good",
		    I Remain,
			Truely Yours,
			     Zzzzzz,
				-Mike Muuss
				 U.S. Army BRL.