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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: net.os
Message-ID: <1777@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 08:27:29 EST
Article-I.D.: peora.1777
Posted: Wed Nov  6 08:27:29 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Nov-85 06:16:33 EST
References: <2466@sjuvax.UUCP> <1594@utcsri.UUCP>
Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl.
Lines: 35
Keywords: operating-systems news-groups

> I feel we need a net.os to discuss operating system topics.  Right now
> this is spread all over the net, mainly in heavily used groups like
> unix-wizards.  Unix isn't everything, and even there it would be nice to
> have a discussion not buried by discussion of bugs, etc.

Well, recently I have apparently been advocating newsgroup proliferation,
which isn't really true at all (it's just that they always want to cancel
particularly useful newsgroups, and keep around the ones where they spend
all the time talking about toilet paper, arguing about whether single people
have the right to have opinions about raising children, etc.).

However, I think an OS newsgroup would be a good idea.  In particular, it
would allow (I would hope) discussion about more theoretical OS topics,
rather than a hundred postings on yet another way to hack up Unix.  As for
unix-wizards, I gave up reading it long ago because it is suited only to
concrete dialogue; at the slightest suggestion of abstract thought, a hundred
proud hackers will jump on you, claiming with strange arguments-by-example
that you are "wrong".

Fortunately, a lot of good, reasonably abstract discussion goes on in
net.arch.  What we need is something more on the order of net.arch's usually
civilized, usually moderately open-minded, discussion.  Personally I would
tend to think that net.arch.os would achieve this end (both tending to
reduce the volume and improve the quality), but that doesn't matter really;
it does seem ironic that on a network that claims to be a network of
computer scientists*, there is no discussion of operating systems.


*Oh... maybe it doesn't.
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
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