Next thing you know there'll be a front-page article recommending "Godel, Escher, Bach", a trip through the Jargon file, a link to the Scary Devil Monastery group and, hey, did you read that thread where Linus gets into a flame-war with Tanenbaum?
Apologies to showing it to you twice. However, I think the benefit of showing it to those who haven't seen it outweighs the cost of seeing it twice (feel free to down-vote this to negate the karma).
In the beginning, there were switches and lights....
And, "Bill Gates and Paul Allen came up with an idea even stranger and more fantastical: selling computer operating systems." is false. IBM had been selling operating systems for years, thanks to one of the consent decree. (This let Amdahl and the first clone makers concentrate on building hardware and ignore software.) Moreover, Gates almost certainly knew that IBM sold operating systems.
I doubt that IBM was the first to sell operating systems, and if it was, I seriously doubt that Microsoft was the second.
I embraced OS X as soon as it was available and have never
looked back. So a lot of "In the beginning was the command
line" is now obsolete. I keep meaning to update it, but if
I'm honest with myself, I have to say this is unlikely.
I looked at the new Mac Pro the other day, and it seems to me that things are coming full circle. The advantage Mac gets by controlling the hardware as well as the software is really putting them ahead of Microsoft in terms of what they can do and I would expect it to continue.
To be more clear, if you build for a maximum of 3 possible configurations you can make a much better experience than someone who has to deal with a virtually infinite amount. So, takes less resources to do and makes a better experience in the end. Sounds like a win-win to me.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 43.0 ms ] threadIt strangely continues to be true. Maybe because the concept he talks about pervade the makeup of the operating systems he discusses so much.
However, it's a classic. Not news.
Next thing you know there'll be a front-page article recommending "Godel, Escher, Bach", a trip through the Jargon file, a link to the Scary Devil Monastery group and, hey, did you read that thread where Linus gets into a flame-war with Tanenbaum?
Also, ED is the standard editor! Yeah!
Apologies to showing it to you twice. However, I think the benefit of showing it to those who haven't seen it outweighs the cost of seeing it twice (feel free to down-vote this to negate the karma).
And, "Bill Gates and Paul Allen came up with an idea even stranger and more fantastical: selling computer operating systems." is false. IBM had been selling operating systems for years, thanks to one of the consent decree. (This let Amdahl and the first clone makers concentrate on building hardware and ignore software.) Moreover, Gates almost certainly knew that IBM sold operating systems.
I doubt that IBM was the first to sell operating systems, and if it was, I seriously doubt that Microsoft was the second.
To be more clear, if you build for a maximum of 3 possible configurations you can make a much better experience than someone who has to deal with a virtually infinite amount. So, takes less resources to do and makes a better experience in the end. Sounds like a win-win to me.