From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <439F0826.2030309@village.com> Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 12:43:02 -0500 From: Wes Kussmaul User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (Windows/20050923) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] MS Research reinvents Inferno? References: <6bec4c2e9eee6a9e5369a0e693dd51b0@9netics.com> <126a2f7d0512130426g575169e4v8a349a9a35c5f855@mail.gmail.com> <283f5df10512130826u1fd2f19ahf71d310e0b6b7ff3@mail.gmail.com> <439EFB7D.4050205@lanl.gov> In-Reply-To: <439EFB7D.4050205@lanl.gov> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Topicbox-Message-UUID: c2f5c53a-ead0-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 Ronald G Minnich wrote: > There are no real new ideas in CS popping around at this point, so we=20 > are reduced to recycling each other's socks. So it goes. We're in an=20 > evolutionary, not a revoluationary, business. This may be permanent, it= =20 > is hard to tell. Minutes ago I got a message from a journalist friend with just the=20 subject _New OS Announced_ and a link: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/12/prweb321987.htm So ok, you needn't bother following that, it points to a press release=20 by a white box pc vendor announcing that you can buy their computers=20 with the new AX5 operating system that looks and works like Windows and=20 opens MS Office files and runs this long list of Windows programs. In other words it's some flavor of Linux with WINE and probably Open=20 Office 2.0 and some hastily gimped graphics. But to my friend it's a NEW OS! Here's the thing. If someone has found a way to educate him to the fact=20 that he can have these things and finds a way to get him using it, then=20 indeed it IS a new OS. So Ron, you say there's nothing new in CS, that we're just recycling=20 each others' socks. How about combining socks with shirt and pants and=20 offering a whole wardrobe? If that doesn't qualify as CS then so what?=20 It's making computers more useful to people who don't know a lot about=20 how they work. With some effort and especially some imagination, someone could deliver=20 something to my friend that not only emulates Windows but delivers much=20 more than he ever knew he could have. How about a bounded online space=20 where he can share files with his friends around the world with a fair=20 degree of security? How about keeping DLL-land in its outdoor space,=20 leaving it to its buffer overflows etc. but having an InDoor space a few=20 keystrokes away? I once read an article about companies selling specialized vehicles=20 complaining about how their competitor had just put some special purpose=20 equipment on a plain vanilla truck chassis and called it a specialized=20 vehicle. A customer was then quoted saying how he preferred the latter=20 not only because it was cheaper but that maintenance of the truck part=20 was a commodity skill, parts were readily available etc. and it was just=20 fine with him that someone found a way to quickly cobble something new=20 out of readily available pieces. That, it seems to me, qualifies as=20 truck science. But even if it doesn't it was probably a very fun thing=20 to do. Sort of like finding a way to put Linux in ROM and replacing the=20 stupid BIOS with it. --=20 Wes Kussmaul CIO The Village Group 738 Main Street Waltham, MA 02451 781-647-7178 My uncle likes to say that the world=92s biggest troubles started when th= e=20 serpent said, =93Try this fruit, and by the way if a bunch of people=20 collectively calling themselves Arthur Andersen signs something it=92s th= e=20 same as if a person named Arthur Andersen signed it.=94 I don=92t get the= =20 serpent and fruit part. Must be some Swiss mythology thing. He can be a=20 bit obscure. P.K. Iggy _How I Like Fixed The Internet_ (Tales from the Great Infodepression of 2009 and the prosperity that followed)