Favorite operating systems query

[Larry McVoy]

In article <2121 at hammer.UUCP> tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy (Snoopy) writes:
>In article <452 at geowhiz.UUCP> larry at geowhiz.UUCP (Larry McVoy) writes:
>
>>8) Robustness.  VMS almost *never* crashes.  Unix crashes all the time.
>
>If your machines are crashing "all the time", something is wrong,
>but don't blame it on "Unix".

OK, OK, I'll bite on some of the replies I've received.

1) There are a large number of fanatics out there who foam at the mouth when
   ever someone bad mouths Unix.  Tough life.  I have no sympathy for such.

2) I was wrong about VMS src, I guess they do release it - on microfiche unless
   you want to pay mega$$ for machine readable.  Sorry.

3) In regards to Unix robustness - I'll make you all a challenge: I'll bet I can
   take a commercially available Unix (BSD based, I don't play w/ AT&T & they 
   don't play w/ me) and find twice as many ways to screw it up as you could
   in VMS.  This means anything from kernel bugs to application bugs.

   The point is that Unix systems are hacked together things which work most
   of the time; you learn real fast which buttons not push.  In VMS they took
   those buttons away.  It's a much more solid product.

4) Crashing:  You bet it crashes.  Until you fix the bugs.  Even the people who
   denied this said that if you added this or pushed that or diddled the other
   thing it would crash.  Like I said, it crashes all the time.  Look at the 
   list of bugs *known* about BSD Unix.  Look at tektronix, they claimed to 
   have a port of 4.2 with over **2000** bug fixes.  2,000??? In a distribution
   version of Unix?  Come on.  At CS here it took them 6 months to a year to 
   get 4.2 to the point that it didn't crash each time the load got to 20 on a
   780 (I know, I used that vax during the "fixing" period).
-- 
Larry McVoy
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Arpa:  mcvoy at rsch.wisc.edu                              
Uucp:  {seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!larry      

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