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Cyhist Apr 1 1997 E
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Date: Tue, 1 Apr 1997 13:22:16 -0600
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Peter da Silva <peter@BAILEYNM.COM>
Subject: Re: RE If Ritchie had had Gates' business accument
In-Reply-To: <199704011820.MAA19245@web.nmti.com> from "Laurence I. Press" at
Apr 1, 97 09:45:55 am
Content-Type: text
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>>I often wonder what wouuld have happened if Dennis Ritchie had had the business acumen of Bill Gates.
>Neat conjecture. (There were some early unix attempts -- on the LSI-11 and also SCO. Also Altos I believe at some point).
SCO was a Microsoft spinoff. Xenix was a Microsoft product... right up to the point where it became obvious that Microsoft wasn't going to dominate the UNIX market with Xenix (not because it wasn't good, because it was very good for the time, but because they simply couldn't control a market with so many players and they couldn't get an exclusive license).
The PC/XT ran Xenix very well (for the time), and for most applications Xenix was much much faster than MS-DOS, because it had real device drivers for the disk, screen, and so on that provided decent performance without having to go under the covers.
But Microsoft didn't control the UNIX market, even on PCs (there were products from IBM (PC/IX) and Venturcom (Venix) as well as UNIX clones like Idris and Lanetix), so they shed it.
>What would have been the "optimal" time for "Ritchie" to have introduced his OS?
When the PC/XT came out. One XT with two terminals and a printer was not at all bad as a small office system, when the competition was MP/M and networked CP/M boxes like HiNet, running the lightweight applications of the day.
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Peter da Silva <peter@BAILEYNM.COM>
Subject: Re: RE If Ritchie had had Gates' business accument
In-Reply-To: <199704011820.MAA19245@web.nmti.com> from "Laurence I. Press" at
Apr 1, 97 09:45:55 am
Content-Type: text
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
>>I often wonder what wouuld have happened if Dennis Ritchie had had the business acumen of Bill Gates.
>Neat conjecture. (There were some early unix attempts -- on the LSI-11 and also SCO. Also Altos I believe at some point).
SCO was a Microsoft spinoff. Xenix was a Microsoft product... right up to the point where it became obvious that Microsoft wasn't going to dominate the UNIX market with Xenix (not because it wasn't good, because it was very good for the time, but because they simply couldn't control a market with so many players and they couldn't get an exclusive license).
The PC/XT ran Xenix very well (for the time), and for most applications Xenix was much much faster than MS-DOS, because it had real device drivers for the disk, screen, and so on that provided decent performance without having to go under the covers.
But Microsoft didn't control the UNIX market, even on PCs (there were products from IBM (PC/IX) and Venturcom (Venix) as well as UNIX clones like Idris and Lanetix), so they shed it.
>What would have been the "optimal" time for "Ritchie" to have introduced his OS?
When the PC/XT came out. One XT with two terminals and a printer was not at all bad as a small office system, when the competition was MP/M and networked CP/M boxes like HiNet, running the lightweight applications of the day.
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