*USING* systems from DEC/IBM/HP

[Jamie Watson]

The discussions so far of OSF and its impact on the future of unix systems
has been entirely concerned with perceptions of the motives of the founders.
As I have a fair amount of experience working with systems from three of the
major founders of OSF, and with AT&T and Sun, I would like to comment on the
the issue from a different perspective.  Based on past experience, what are
we likely to get for a product from OSF.

First, a short background.  Over the past ten years, I have worked in some
depth with Unix systems from (in somewhat chronological order) DEC, Momentum,
Plexus, HP, Sun, Opus, Arete, NCR, DEC (again) and IBM.  For three years I
was the (usually only) software engineer for the Swiss distributor for Sun
and Plexus.

I am now working primarily with DEC (Ultrix) and RT/PC (AIX) systems.  I have
been consistently satisfied with both.  Each has significant advantages, and
significant problems.  I have never worked with a Unix system that didn't have
significant problems (although I've worked with a few that didn't have any
significant advantages).

If, instead of pulling wild speculation out of thin air about the possible
motives and future actions of the OSF members, you examine their past record,
I think you will find considerable cause for optimism.  Ultrix, AIX and HP/UX,
in their current releases, are all good Unix implementations.  More important,
they have all been improved steadily over the recent past, and all show clear
signs of continuing to be improved in the future.  Interstingly, all three of
these implementations either currently have, or have announced firm dates for,
extensive SysV *and* BSD compatibility, and significant generally accepted
extensions such as NFS.

If the members of the OSF continue to supply an operating system of the
quality that they have supplied in the past, I think we will all survive
what has been forced on us by commercial circumstances that are far beyond
our control.

jw