From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 31641 invoked from network); 28 Nov 2021 20:29:17 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 28 Nov 2021 20:29:17 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B61E49CF2E; Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:29:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77D7E94613; Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:27:39 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 8670794613; Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:26:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from darkstar.fourwinds.com (fourwinds.com [63.64.179.162]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CD72C94586 for ; Mon, 29 Nov 2021 06:26:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: from darkstar.fourwinds.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by darkstar.fourwinds.com (8.16.1/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 1ASKQ9ie1437848; Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:26:09 -0800 Received: from darkstar.fourwinds.com (jon@localhost) by darkstar.fourwinds.com (8.16.1/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id 1ASKQ5X41437843; Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:26:06 -0800 Message-Id: <202111282026.1ASKQ5X41437843@darkstar.fourwinds.com> To: TUHS main list From: Jon Steinhart MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <1437841.1638131165.1@darkstar.fourwinds.com> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:26:05 -0800 X-JON-SPAM: local delivery Subject: [TUHS] A New History of Modern Computing - my thoughts X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: Eugene Miya Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Eugene Miya visited by last week and accidentally left his copy of the book here so I decided to read it before he came back to pick it up. My overall impression is that while it contained a lot of information, it wasn't presented in a manner that I found interesting. I don't know the intended target audience, but it's not me. A good part of it is that my interest is in the evolution of technology. I think that a more accurate title for the book would be "A New History of the Business of Modern Computing". The book was thorough in covering the number of each type of machine sold and how much money was made, but that's only of passing interest to me. Were it me I would have just summarized all that in a table and used the space to tell some engaging anecdotes. There were a number of things that I felt the book glossed over or missed completely. One is that I didn't think that they gave sufficient credit to the symbiosis between C and the PDP-11 instruction set and the degree to which the PDP-11 was enormously influential. Another is that I felt that the book didn't give computer graphics adequate treatment. I realize that it was primarily in the workstation market segment which was not as large as some of the other segments, but in my opinion the development of the technology was hugely important as it eventually became commodified and highly profitable. Probably due to my personal involvement I felt that the book missed some important steps along the path toward open source. In particular, it used the IPO of Red Hat as the seminal moment while not even mentioning the role of Cygnus. My opinion is that Cygnus was a huge icebreaker in the adoption of open source by the business world, and that the Red Hat IPO was just the culmination. I also didn't feel that there was any message or takeaways for readers. I didn't get any "based on all this I should go and do that" sort of feeling. If the purpose of the book was to present a dry history then it pretty much did it's job. Obviously the authors had to pick and choose what to write about and I would have made some different choices. But, not my book. Jon