Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Computers

Paul Camp writes:
The fact remains that deep in its heart of hearts, OpenStep is unix.
In many respects, that is a step into the past, not the future, and
is probably the reason for the OS being a resource hog. It is a
failure in the sense that nobody uses it (and in the end, for a
business, that is the only sense that counts).

But it presents an interesting quandary: Apple proposes to take a slow
operating system and superimpose on top of that an inherently slow
software technology with the emulation of System 7.x. This does not
bode well.

Actually OpenStep is the layer that runs on top of the "kernel", which
need not be Unix, although Apple did indeed choose the Mach kernel,
which is basically a variation of Unix. However, OpenStep runs on top of
Windows NT and even 95 I believe. That means the apps written for the
new Mac system will (with recompilation) run on those systems too (if
the new OpenStep is installed, which is all software), something a lot
of people haven't realized yet.

The ability to run System 7 apps will be confined to the "pure-Mac"
version of the the new OpenStep. It will not be, strictly speaking, an
emulation. They claim everything will run at least as fast as now. We'll
see. System 7 will run as a single process or application under the new
system. It will be a funny sort of application. If a System 7 app
crashes it may bring down the whole System 7 process (as can happen
now). Only that will not affect any apps written for the new system,
since there will be memory protection (more important than pre-emptive
multitasking in my book).

I don't have any experience with NeXt, so I can't comment on how slow it
is. But I have a feeling that is not a major concern for the new
generation of PowerPC chips. Apple execs can't be totally stupid. They
have just forked over $400 million (not bad for a company that's
supposedly in hopeless condition) for NeXT. I'm looking forward to the
new system. Just hope Apple doesn't go under because of consumer fears
before they get a chance to implement it.

--Bob Estes