From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ggm@algebras.org (George Michaelson) Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2018 08:54:15 +1000 Subject: [TUHS] Windows roots and Unix influence (was Re: Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!) In-Reply-To: References: <20180204091435.GA22841@indra.papnet.eu> <00d001d39ddc$a069a380$e13cea80$@ronnatalie.com> Message-ID: I did some weak-mode due diligence on the infrastructure side of DirecTV for a potential user/ISP in Australia. This was in the 90s. The TDM sat control logic, the box which fed the Hughes aerospace low level protocol to tell the satellite which user got which timeslots, was OS/2 -I glibly assumed this was initially a typo, and then when I confirmed it, checked it was under maintenance, and indeed it was. it continued to be an actively maintained product until 2006 according to wookiepedia when I read it just now. (it is a little hard to read, but google translate works) So this idea that all good ideas die, and get replaced by bad Microsoft ideas even then, wasn't strictly true: People chose to run systems which worked for them, and if the backend support contracts works, continued to run then way way after they "died" in the visible marketplace. So back then, I shrugged and said "it seems ok. it works, its very small, very fast, has sensible logic behind it, and its a shitload better than windows". We weren't going to interact with this OS/2, somehow they'd sent me the uplink control manual for a consumer internet service we'd resell at arms length: we'd send emails to Hughes staff, who would issue the commands, to configure the customers live (the customer side squareial antenna was designed for anyone, even army PFCs to configure: you line of sight it to north, then hunt-and-check until the whistle said it was on-target. It think the TV could even be a ring-and-dot focus thing checking side-channel SQ to confirm when it was lined up. Then tighten the wall bolts, and its done. Oh right. Did I say north? I'm southern hemisphere. you guys line it south...) Looking back, I don't know what I expected the OS behind this thing to be. Probably, some arcane military-industrial (BESM compatible? Never know when you might sell one to the other side...) protocol designed to cause ICBM to be launched, with Bruce Willis on it riding bareback to wrestle the sat dish into place. Or punch cards. Or maybe you phone Hughes and they type it into a 1960s batch control system on their own fruitbat powered analog computer. Or .. OS/2? why not. That works. DECISION! On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 8:43 AM, Dave Horsfall wrote: > On Sun, 4 Feb 2018, Dan Cross wrote: > >> Amusingly, I have a device in my airplane that runs NT4 without >> any Windows graphical API on it. You can see the thing printing >> the NT4 startup and build number when you power it on and it will >> BSOD. >> >> BSOD on an airplane? That sounds kind of scary. > > > Dunno if you're joking or not, but if you're serious then yes, NT starts up > with a nice bright blue screen and some gibberish, and to log on you have to > "CTL/ALT/DEL". Yes, really... I did not endear myself to my Windoze-loving > cow-orkers when I commented that a) it comes with its own BSOD, and b) you > have to reboot it to log on. > > -- > Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU) "Those who don't understand security will > suffer."