Our fine educational system (was: Login on VMS)

From: Adrian Graham <agraham_at_ccat.co.uk>
Date: Mon Sep 25 07:51:23 2000

*grin*. Like those quotes....

Didn't Ken also say "The future of computing is not on the desktop" thus
sending Mr. Gates to IBM? He's also said something about U**x being the
'snake oil' of computing but I can't remember that one.

a

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Pechter [mailto:pechter_at_pechter.dyndns.org]
> Sent: 25 September 2000 13:43
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re: Our fine educational system (was: Login on VMS)
>
>
> > Your right, that is lame.
> >
> > Oh, the biggest peice of foot I ever ate... small computers
> will never
> > be as prolific as they are. However, despite that I was
> designing with
> > 8008 in '73, it was interesting (and that golden opportunity).
> >
> > Allison
> >
> >
> >
>
> You're in good company:
>
> Don't forget Ken Olson's comment on personal computers back
> in the same
> time period.
>
>
> "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their
> home."
> -- Ken Olson, President of DEC, World Future Society
> Convention, 1977
> -+-+=-+-
>
> ...and then again there's the following. (Both quotes are in my
> FreeBSD box MOTD as a reminder.
>
> One of the questions that comes up all the time is: How
> enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?
> Unix was written on our machines and for our machines many
> years ago. Today, much of UNIX being done is done on our machines.
> Ten percent of our VAXs are going for UNIX use. UNIX is a simple
> language, easy to understand, easy to get started with.
> It's great for
> students, great for somewhat casual users, and it's great for
> interchanging programs between different machines. And so,
> because of
> its popularity in these markets, we support it. We have
> good UNIX on
> VAX and good UNIX on PDP-11s.
> It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will
> run out of things they can do with UNIX. They'll want a
> real system and
> will end up doing VMS when they get to be serious about programming.
> With UNIX, if you're looking for something, you can easily and
> quickly check that small manual and find out that it's not
> there. With
> VMS, no matter what you look for -- it's literally a
> five-foot shelf of
> documentation -- if you look long enough it's there. That's the
> difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's simple; and the
> beauty of VMS
> is that it's all there.
>
>
> -- Ken Olsen, president of DEC, DECWORLD Vol. 8
> No. 5, 1984
>
> -+-+=-+-
>
>
>
> Didn't Arthur C. Clarke make a comment as to if an old scientest says
> something is possible it probably is and if he says it's impossible it
> may not be.
>
> There's something to remember -- people in a field often get locked in
> to a certain view and can't see the changes that will happen (and in
> DEC's case run over it like a bus over some roadkill).
>
> Bill
> --
> bpechter_at_monmouth.com | Microsoft: Where do you want
> to go today?
> | Linux: Where do you want
> to go tomorrow?
> | BSD: Are you guys
> coming, or what?
>
Received on Mon Sep 25 2000 - 07:51:23 BST