Thread: Unix Popularity
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Old 7th July 2008
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TerryP TerryP is offline
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@drhowarddrfine

For me, I've always felt that UNIX is designed by developers for the developers and the rest, is just business. If I recall, didn't the great inventors create unix for their own reasons at first?


The groff software that DrJ uses, isn't it very much a descendent of business?


I'm very sure that the early roff and things could have been implemented on whatever DECs OS offerings were for the various PDP-* microcomputers were in use but did the softwares creator want to do that?

Various UNIX systems provide better development tools then any other system I've encountered, while I'm sure many people here would have a _lot_ more weight behind making such a statement then I can claim. The fact still remains, for me nothing has been as good!


A real system should be self sustaining shouldn't it? FreeBSD for example (aside from no svn client, yet) is fully capable of being used to develop software built for users and working on the system itself.


Windows was created by business for business reasons. They wanted to make money, they didn't give a damn about operating system design -- 23 years later it still shows (imho).


The average home user was probably lucky to have an internet connection once upon a time, let a long a bloody computer. Now, why should they need a Ph.D. to use a computer?


My first exposure to computers was via MS-DOS 2.0 on my brothers Tandy 1000, until I started "poking around" a Windows 98 machine many years later, I always considered computers a thing for people in lab coats not Joe blow from cocomo.


UNIX is beautifully designed according to my sense of engineering, because that is what the developers made it and no one else could have done that.

Windows? Is just what sells to the masses.


An operating system for people that don't know computers, don't want to know computers, and don't care about "Source Code" because most of them don't know what it is, don't want to know what it is, and can pay someone else to make the software they want -- as long as in the end it does what they want without more trouble then they care to pay for.



I guess you could say that I view unix as a system for developers and windows as a commercial product.


To me, professional usage means taking care of the business and craft that separates one from people outside of the profession, for which they are usually paid for doing.



A carpenter knows a lot about working with wood, I don't know jack about it, things relating to carpentry makes that person unique in ways that I am not and gives them a bond to others of like-mind.





Quote:
Originally Posted by scottro View Post
A poll of how many Windows servers there are on the Internet? Or who is a professional?

It doesn't mean that much. I am a professional, but I don't consider myself more knowledgeable than many who aren't.

Quote:
Originally Posted by drhowarddrfine View Post
As far as the aforementioned poll goes, I think it should be carefully worded. Do we count professional IT people who only use FreeBSD as a hobby as a hobbyist? How do you rank someone who can outcode Brian Kernighan but is a carpenter by day?

Well, I suppose a proper (read fair) distinction would be are you into computers because you want to or because you are paid too.


Some "professionals" love computers. Others, well want to set sale for greener pa$ture$ in the end or maybe work on their golfing.



Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatux View Post
I don't even see Flash as a major obstacle. I need Flash just to watch Youtube videos occasionally, and swfdec plays those very well.
I've mostly had internet access since WebTV and in probably 10 or more years, I have never really *needed* flash for anything. Sure I enjoy the ability to watch the YouTube videos friends share with me but I only click a very small group of them and can feed most through MPlayer ;-)


Websites that require flash for general usage, can kiss my rebel... eh wait, I can't say that here -- just look up Doc Holiday in Wyatt Earp ;-)



Quote:
Originally Posted by Oko View Post
So what is the "complicated" desktop? I thought that a desktop computer was a computer capable of running Web-browser, an email client, and an office suite + little bit of multimedia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJ View Post
What exactly a desktop is has been discussed with some interest. The best I can tell is that a "desktop" is what people do with their own local CPU running their own local programs, and that this varies a *lot*. And that definition is not that clean either.

What Oko has described is actually what most people I know use their computers for, aside from work/school related stuff and "pleasure" (games, p2p, porn, etc).


My mother only uses her computer for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, probably doesn't know what they are, and wouldn't care to hear about it either -- as long as it does what she needs, she's happy.


And I'm happy as long as she doesn't try my patience to often....


No operating system should be considered within terms of the/a "Desktop" imho, just a desktop in the sense that people tend to use it at a desk ;-)



I use my computer for things different from my mother and friends use theirs, Oko uses his differently then mine, DrJ uses his differently then Oko and so on.


People can get blue in the face talking about "desktop" stuff and still keep going, it just doesn't serve any real point these days unless you are selling pre-made desktops !
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