4 ms·

SGI, Sun, DEC... I really miss those days a lot. Sure, they were daylight robbery (SGI especially so), but computing was far more heterogeneous.

shagie 9y ago
Ahh yes... the days of the Software Wars. http://mshiltonj.com/software-wars/ http://mshiltonj.com/software-wars/ (last update 2003) - it might be interesting to reimagine that in today's world. From the 2006 map, Oracle's assimilation of the lion's share of the "south" (MySQL, Sun, Java) and the battle between Apple and Google in the "north west". That said, consider the flip side of the heterogeneous aspect. You were unlikely to be able to run software on two different platforms that could communicate in a meaningful way. It was duct tape everywhere. There was no "cloud" that one could get significant computing resources on. You could pay (much more) for time on a shell at uunet or another isp... or buy your own for $$$. A 250MHz Octane MXE with 128MB RAM and 4GB disk has a US list price of $47,995 in 1998. That's $72k in 2017 money. Making consistent technology stacks has reduced the cost to the point were we think very little about the hardware anymore - and by making those decisions unnecessary it has allowed for improved portability of skills and not worrying about the abstraction of the hardware (until it leaks).
- Keyframe 9y ago
  Good points and I'm not arguing them. Things are now extremely more convenient then they were. What's missing is differences in approach to solving, well, everything. Everything was different from system to system (esp. mid 80's to mid 90's). People were still figuring out what to settle on. From a perspective of someone who likes to tinker with stuff, it was a blast. From a business and maybe usability perspective - it was a nightmare. Now, when most stuff is settled-upon, it's like cars. There are differences, but not really. Turn lights to your left, wipers to your right, wheel turns left and right, there's a manual stick or automatic, pedals... it's all there, where you expect them to be. And that's good! Times were a bit more pioneering back then, naturally.
  - iso-8859-1 9y ago
    The industry has grown. Linux was niche in 1992. E.g. Genode is niche today. UNIX beards don't see the pioneering because they just want UNIX. Sounds like you can't see the wood for the trees. :P
    - Keyframe 9y ago
      Maybe! :) But, when I try to look at it objectively, as far as I can, I can see there aren't any big paradigm shifts / explorations in OS' and computer architectures anymore. With a reason, industry has matured and moved from tectonic shifts to iteration.
whipoodle 9y ago
When I was in undergrad it used to drive me nuts when I sat down at a terminal and the switches to `ls` or `ps` didn't work how I expected, and then I had to look them up. Things didn't seem appreciably different in a way that was interesting or useful, just different for the sake of difference.

shagie 9y ago

Ahh yes... the days of the Software Wars. http://mshiltonj.com/software-wars/ http://mshiltonj.com/software-wars/ (last update 2003) - it might be interesting to reimagine that in today's world. From the 2006 map, Oracle's assimilation of the lion's share of the "south" (MySQL, Sun, Java) and the battle between Apple and Google in the "north west". That said, consider the flip side of the heterogeneous aspect. You were unlikely to be able to run software on two different platforms that could communicate in a meaningful way. It was duct tape everywhere. There was no "cloud" that one could get significant computing resources on. You could pay (much more) for time on a shell at uunet or another isp... or buy your own for $$$. A 250MHz Octane MXE with 128MB RAM and 4GB disk has a US list price of $47,995 in 1998. That's $72k in 2017 money. Making consistent technology stacks has reduced the cost to the point were we think very little about the hardware anymore - and by making those decisions unnecessary it has allowed for improved portability of skills and not worrying about the abstraction of the hardware (until it leaks).

Keyframe 9y ago
Good points and I'm not arguing them. Things are now extremely more convenient then they were. What's missing is differences in approach to solving, well, everything. Everything was different from system to system (esp. mid 80's to mid 90's). People were still figuring out what to settle on. From a perspective of someone who likes to tinker with stuff, it was a blast. From a business and maybe usability perspective - it was a nightmare. Now, when most stuff is settled-upon, it's like cars. There are differences, but not really. Turn lights to your left, wipers to your right, wheel turns left and right, there's a manual stick or automatic, pedals... it's all there, where you expect them to be. And that's good! Times were a bit more pioneering back then, naturally.
- iso-8859-1 9y ago
  The industry has grown. Linux was niche in 1992. E.g. Genode is niche today. UNIX beards don't see the pioneering because they just want UNIX. Sounds like you can't see the wood for the trees. :P
  - Keyframe 9y ago
    Maybe! :) But, when I try to look at it objectively, as far as I can, I can see there aren't any big paradigm shifts / explorations in OS' and computer architectures anymore. With a reason, industry has matured and moved from tectonic shifts to iteration.

whipoodle 9y ago

When I was in undergrad it used to drive me nuts when I sat down at a terminal and the switches to `ls` or `ps` didn't work how I expected, and then I had to look them up. Things didn't seem appreciably different in a way that was interesting or useful, just different for the sake of difference.