AT&T/Sun merged UNIX

[George W. Leach]

In article <11558 at brl-adm.ARPA> bzs%bu-cs.bu.edu at bu-it.bu.edu (Barry Shein) writes:

>From: Doug Gwyn  <gwyn at brl-smoke.arpa>
>>Of course it would be pretty stupid for the AT&T/Sun merged OS
>>project to not track the standards, but they haven't been immune
>>from stupidity in the past.

     [Barry's discussion concerning the needs to address various
      "Modern Needs" deleted.....]

>Personally, I consider the ATT/Sun merger a welcome and long overdue
>kick in the ass.

>	-Barry Shein, Boston University


    Clap, clap, clap!!!


    I agree!  For several years I participated in a task force at Bell
Communications Research where we had been charged with the mission of
establishing a UNIX Standard Operating Environment.  I felt that for 
the most part, we were not going to dictate to vendors what features
to include in their UNIX offerings.  It also seemed obvious that many
vendors, starting with Pyramid's OSx, were offering dual ports of BSD
and System V flavored UNIX.  To me this indicated that the two had to
be merged some day in order for UNIX to survive and thrive in the future.


     This action by Sun and AT&T is simply the logical extension of this
work.  They are for the most part the two main proponents of the two strains
of UNIX.  Who else should do this?  A committee?  I think we can all agree
that any language or OS that is designed by committee is destined to fail
due to the politics involved.  The key here is what AT&T and Sun will do to
ensure that the rest of the industry will go along with them.


-- 
George W. Leach					Paradyne Corporation
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