On propriatary hardware and the origins of Linux (was: IBM Buys Rational...)

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On 6 Dec 2002, at 5:23pm, pri.nhlug at iadonisi.to wrote:
> Being able to set a system to NOT boot automatically and drop right into a
> command line to probe devices, boot from alternate devices (without
> changing any nvram settings) has saved me a number of times.

  Again FWIW, all of those features are available on PCs, albeit almost
always in a full-screen text menu instead of a command-line.  The thing
about PC hardware is that, because no one company controls it, you will see
all manner of things, from the very good to the very bad.  This is why Mac's
are "so easy to use" -- because the Apple OS works just fine on the Apple
CPU with the Apple monitor and the Apple mouse and the Apple music player
and the Apple disk drive.  If you want a free market, you have to be able to
accept the fact that 90% of everything will be crap.  :-)

> And that's just one of the nice features real firmware.

  The thing that really makes the firmware in most proprietary Unix systems
different from PCs is that the firmware is tightly coupled with the
operating system.  For example, you can usually control OS boot options from
the ROM monitor.

  Now stop and think about what the PC would be like if it was closely
coupled with the predominant OS sold by most manufacturers.

  The reason I don't like Compaq is that their tools all assume you will be
running MS-Windows.  It is not a coincidence that their remote management
tools -- which work very well -- also work mainly with MS-Windows.

  My point, and how it relates to Linux, is thus: The reason the PC wins
where nominally "better" proprietary systems have lost is that the PC is not
under anyone's control.  If the PC were more like proprietary systems,
chances are, we would not be having this conversation at all, because Linus
would never have been able to hack together his own Unix kernel on a cheap
386.

  Be careful what you wish for.  You may get it.  :-)

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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