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From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: Unix Haters
Date: 1996/03/28
Message-ID: <dewar.828023149@schonberg>#1/1
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references: <00001a73+00002504@msn.com> <31442F19.6C13@lfwc.lockheed.com>
 <4i26uhINNsd@keats.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca> <31457584.2475@lfwc.lockheed.com>
 <4i4s5f$igc@solutions.solon.com> <3146E324.5C1E@lfwc.lockheed.com>
 <Pine.A32.3.91.960313165249.124278B-100000@red.weeg.uiowa.edu>
 <4i9ld6$m2v@rational.rational.com> <4iah20$p7k@saba.info.ucla.edu>
 <4ifqbg$b32@fred.netinfo.com.au> <4iutmh$790@ionews.ionet.net>
 <AD7EB33C9668919A@mcdiala13.it.luc.edu> <dewar.827955102@schonberg>
 <4jd865$t0t@blackice.winternet.com>
organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++
Date: 1996-03-28T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

Jeff said

": Another chuckle. Typical Unix systems today require skads of memory,
: and typically you find Unix only on high end machines, while the 99%
: of lower end machines are running other OS's (System 7, DOS, WIndows)
:

    Yet another newbie.   Unix ran on cheap hardware in that a bare
PDP-11 cost less than an IBM 370 or a Cyber 76.  Most of the history
of computing predates the desktop."

Sure, we all learnt Unix on the PDP-11, at least I did (I'm not such
a newbie), but note "today require" vs "Unix ran". There is a big
difference between the past tense and the present tense.

Sure, in terms of years, it is true that most of the history of
computing predates the desktop, but measured in terms of wideness of
use, this pre-desktop history is of minimal significance at this stage.