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From: Alastair Milne 
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: comparison of micros for upcoming purchase
Message-ID: <6840@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 29-Dec-84 15:29:08 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6840
Posted: Sat Dec 29 15:29:08 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Dec-84 01:42:31 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 54


     
>    Well, about DOS, UNIX, and the p-system thats something to ponder on.
>    You see, I find Unix to be extremely overrated and I have been told the
>    p-system is not something one might be whishing for (is it a menu based
>    system?). DOS is not that great either but version 2.0 has nice features:
>    IO redirection and a hierarchical (sp?) file system - I find this to be
>    fully required with hard disks. I guess two people can see the same thing
>    and come up with very different opinions. Also IBM-PCs can run Unix and
>    the p-system, if you want to.

 Much as I like 4.2 BSD UNIX (and I like it very much), the kind of UNIX I
would expect to find on something the size of a PC would be too spartan and
skeletal for much interest.  A powerful part of UNIX's appeal is the number of
useful programs it has (another part, of course, is how the shell itself
permits the programs to be related to each other).

 Is the p-System menu-based??  By comparison, nothing else is.  A touch of a
key gets you into the file handler, or the editor, or compiles (or executes)
your current work file (you don't have to remember its name: the system will
do that for you, and save it under that name when you're finished).  But more
importantly, it has memory management that permits it to run programs far
bigger than the machine's capacity (eg the operating system itself).  It also
supports separately compiled modules very like Ada's packages, any of which
can be shared by any number of programs (or other such modules); in fact, the
operating system itself is constructed of these modules.  

 Because of its organisation, the very small size of its code files, various
concepts it embodies, and many other things which would turn this message into
a reference manual, I still prefer the p-System over anything except full
UNIX.  (and xx-DOS, CP/M, and others of the same kind just don't compare).

>    About the Phoenix BIOS ROMs, well they are supposed to be 100% compatible
>    with IBM's ROMs. Phoenix sells them also as being immune from lawsuits
>    concerning copyright infringements so that IBM-PC clone makers don't have
>    to worry about lawsuits from IBM. The funny thing is that Phoenix has a
>    five million dollar insurance in case IBM sues. When you think about it
>    their allegations are probably true. In my opnion it was a smart move from
>    Tandy to use them.

   Thank you.  I suspect that, if I were Phoenix, I'd have that insurance too.
In the world of corporate nastiness, one never quite knows where the next blow
will come from.

     -Alastair


PS.   Jose, I'm sorry not to reply to you personally, but every attempt I've
     made has resulted in Failed Mail messages.  I seem to have no luck in
     getting anything out to other people on the net.  Only sending to the
     bboards seems to work.  So I'm afraid you'll just have to get this from
     the net.

					Alastair