[time-nuts] For my whole life timezones have been weird

[Orin Eman]

On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 9:24 AM, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:

> On 11/3/12 8:50 AM, Chris Albertson wrote:
>
>>
>> That is the root cause of all Window's problems.  The company was run be a
>> "chief software architect" who technically very ignorant and lacked any
>> formal education in the subject.  Windows still suffers because it tries
>> to
>> maintain backwards compatabilty
>>
>
>
> Hardly the "root" of all problems..  Yes, the conflation of kernel and UI
>  (most of Windows is really all about UI capabilities: heck it's the very
> name of the product).  The kernel of NT was based on the architecture of
> VAX/VMS, which was fairly nice.  Real multitasking, real pre-emption, real
> process isolation, real dynamic run time binding. (none of which DOS had)
>


There was also OS/2...



>
>
>    We have the Internet (called arpanet back then.  We had email and UNIX
>> was
>> alive and well.   We even had mice and track balls This was not the "dark
>> ages" the only real difference was the price of hardware.  And in this age
>> gates did NOT know the difference between an OS and a command shell and he
>> was running Microsoft.
>>
>>
> Don't make the mistake of confusing public statements with background and
> knowledge.  For all you know, Gates wanted to deliberately confuse the two
> for marketing reasons.
>


Not to mention that in the early 80s, Microsoft was a leading supplier of
Unix, er, Xenix!  Here is an interesting history:

http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/Finland_period/xenix_microsoft_shortlived_love_affair_with_unix.shtml

and note the comment by John Wilson* here:

https://plus.google.com/112975947891556571931/posts/Vpmx4EBMCR3

Yes, Unix was alive and well back then and Microsoft were actively using
and selling it.  The PC market was a different animal.

Orin,
Worked in Europe in the early 80s with Xenix.

*Managed the group at Logica in London that sold Xenix in Europe.  He had
the misfortune that Microsoft kept poaching his staff to work in Redmond on
Windows!