[UFO Chicago] Other Free Operating Systems

[Jordan Bettis]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 09:18:42AM -0600, Jay F Shachter wrote:
> 
> NeWS was unquestionably superior to the X windowing system, but it
> never surpassed the X windowing system in popularity, because the X
> windowing system was adequate, and programmers who were accustomed to
> it did not feel a need to learn how to use a better windowing system.

I made sure to avoid making this point by including a truly awful
standard in the list (DAP) and a superbly obscure one as well (FTAM).

X.400 is superior to IETF Email in just about every objective way, and
I believe it does still exist in many places, like as the basis for
internal formats of groupware such as Novell or Exchange. If someone
came to you wanting to learn email programming and you taught them
X.400 though, I think they'd be justifiable in being upset.

The triumpth of 'good enough' over 'great' is the history of
Unix. Perhaps you should be teaching your students VMS programming
when they come to you wanting to learn Unix. There are even still a
few places using VMS.

-- 
Jordan Bettis