Will Unix become the next MS-DOS? (1985) [video]

[aabajian]

Everyone is saying "Nope". A couple events happened in the US in 2013/2014 - The number of cell phones surpassed the number of computers, and the number of smartphones surpassed the number of basic phones. Both iOS and Android are Unix derivatives, so I'd say Unix is winning the post-PC era.

[pjmlp]

Except that both lack UNIX userland, aren't POSIX compliant and have a sandbox design.

[cmrdporcupine]

Well and this is not even mentioning that the 'cloud' is overwhelmingly Unix (well, Linux, so Unix with a small-u)

In terms of installed operating systems and the applications people interact with, Unix or Unix-alike systems win. I don't care if the desktops they use are Windows, or if the phones they run (which have a Unix/Linux kernel usually) don't expose a shell prompt -- the applications they run get the largest part of their functionality through server daemons running on systems running *nix.

[arvinjoar]

And not to forget, OS X, which still has significant market share (>5% of desktops/laptops) and is based on Unix (albeit XNU stands for X is not Unix). Looking at wikipedia, it still seems like a majority of web web clients are windows based, though[1].

[1] = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

[cmrdporcupine]

I always find it interesting to see these Computer Chronicles episodes with Gary Kildall (yay!) hosting. I haven't watched the full episode yet, but it's interesting since at the time his company was writing operating systems and tools that competed with both Unix and Microsoft. I watched an episode where they were comparing the Atari ST and Amiga, and I was impressed with how he never showed bias despite the operating system on the ST having been written by his company.

[rasz_pl]

Gary had himself to blame for failing to see the future of PC market. He build his company on selling tens to hundreds (per week) copies of the $700 CP/M OS used to run $700 dBase II on $10K S100 systems. When IBM entered the market with PC/XT he insisted on pricing himself out of it at six times premium over DOS, as if he didnt believe industry would move in just few years from hundreds to almost hundred thousand boxes per week(1986).

As for him being impartial I wouldnt go so far. I also remember that episode and how they showed bouncing ball on Atari with a stupid "see, we can do it too" comment, totally ignoring the fact Atari 520ST was burning >80% CPU just to blit that ball across the screen while Amiga did it all in hardware while CPU was free to run other programs in full preemptive multitasking OS :)

[rasz_pl]

So sad it didnt :( Mostly out of vendor greed, anything with Unix in name was treated as $premium$.

On that note here is venix86, IBM XT/AT Unix variant, ready to run on emulators:

http://virtuallyfun.superglobalmegacorp.com/2015/08/14/ventu...

[mmastrac]

I loved seeing the name "winchester" for hard drives in those screenshots. I've been renaming the HDD on every computer I've owned since the 80's to that for kicks.

[jsingleton]

Along a similar line. Here's a very interesting show from 1978 about the "rise of the microprocessor".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-197719...

Edit: Here's the show on YouTube for those that can't get iPlayer or don't want to install Flash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5Fvk8FNOQ

[SG-]

A lot of it's basic ideas did even with OS's that aren't Unix or Unix based. Everything is multiuser, multitasking and network based now.

OSX along with iOS which controls a large part of the mobile/tablet. Android has it's Linux roots too.

Windows NT set MS up to finally switch to a better OS and discard of DOS based Windows.

The server space continues today to be run by Unix based OS's (Linux, BSD, etc).

What's really interesting is that in 1985 when this video was out, Next was just being formed and they were building NextStep.

[platz]

Unix is a user-hostile operating system! https://youtu.be/L8G1qg99Kl4?t=22m36s

[voyou]

Funnily, as it turned out, VMS became the new MS-DOS (well, kind of: http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-re... )

[rbanffy]

I like to think Windows actually was intended as a VMS parody. ;-)

[digi_owl]

I kinda like using a DOS-ish Linux install.

A "minimal" boot system that is highly user maintainable etc.

Gives a feeling of control that i kinda missed during the Windows years, where everything was hidden behind cryptic registry entries and services.

[yuhong]

It is unfortunate MS turned OS/2 2.0 into an entire fiasco. There is a reason why it is my favorite topic.

[pmelendez]

I believe that the fiasco started with IBM using LOC as a metric to pay MS. It's like telling contractors that the will pay them better the most inefficient they get.

[zensavona]

I guess not.

[grabcocque]

Nope.