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Do You Remember Bob?

Posted by timothy on from the i-thought-this-was-just-a-bad-dream dept.

GdoL writes: "Do you remember Bob? Byte's editor starts his monthly column talking about Bob the OS Interface from Microsoft in the middle 1990s. And he didn't forget either Bob the programming language from a former technical editor of Dr. Dobbs Journal, David Betz. This OO language is widely use on 'DVD players and set-top boxes produced by the likes of Toshiba, Samsung, and Motorola.' Do you remember any other language long forgotten that is still used in the real world?"

5 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    First post!

  2. Linux cost analysis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Let's have a close look at the costs involved when running a Linux system.

    An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.

    Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.

    According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).

    The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.

    Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".

    The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.

    I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.

    1. Re:Linux cost analysis by Phibz · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      First of all. This is seriously OT and Flame bait (this meaning the above comment and my relpy.) Oh well.

      Your first point "linux requires a *lot* of maintenance" Yes linux requires time and expertise. You can also go out a pay big bucks for a commerical unix and it will _still_ require lots of time.

      Ext2 is generally considered quite stable, but as with any OS. Backup backup backup! Hard drives die, admins do stupid things, people break in. In general shit happens and one of the best ways to prepare for it is to backup. You do have backups of your data don't you? Or were you going to trust your .

      You don't want crashes run one of the more mature kernels. 2.2.x is quite stable. And i had a machine that had an uptime of a year and a half on 1.2.13. Crashes and I mean kernel oops not seg faults are fairly rare. I've only seen a few kernel oops (10) but then again I don't run the bleading edge stuff.

      Although each distribution of linux has differnet ways of doing things, placing files etc. most of it is very unixish. Its usually understood that Unix is not an OS that you use without some learning. If its too hard then don't use it. As far as linux having broken tools i've found many of the gnu utils to be far superior to their commerical equivilants. Take Solaris tar, awk, make, etc...

      "spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages" you mean like your post? Most 14yo I know don't have the skill to write the tools used in linux. Thats not to say they very talented youths don't exist; its just that most younger people using linux don't code for it yet.

      Linux probably is not a good choice for a company seeking a reliable unix, but not for the reasons you've given. Solaris is a very mature Unix and quite dependable (excluding solaris x86). If you want a single entity with 24/7 tech support and big bucks behind it then fork out the cash. And for god sakes if you don't like it then don't use it.

  3. Other Language? by Foxman98 · · Score: 4, Offtopic

    Hmmmmmm...... how about Latin? Not everything has to be computer related...

    --
    S.t.e.v.e.
  4. Re:BOB a hollywood OS by xbrownx · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Win 9x doesn't have a true login feature - its an attempt to log into MS Networking, though 99% of the world doesn't use that anyway.