Just seemed that this really ought to be shared.

Ted

----- Forwarded message from Nicholas Carey <[log in to unmask]> -----

> This showed up in my mailbox today. I've got no reason to doubt
> its veracity, but I can't really vouch for it either. It's still
> pretty darn amusing though.
>
> [intermediate forwards elided]
> > Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 09:26:58 -0400
> > From: glen mccready <[log in to unmask]>
> > X-Loop: [log in to unmask]
> > Forwarded-by: Dan Rich <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> > I've been attending the USENIX NT and LISA NT (Large
> > Installation Systems Administration for NT) conference in
> > downtown Seattle this week.
> >
> > One of those magical Microsoft moments(tm) happened
> > yesterday and I thought that I'd share. Non-geeks may not
> > find this funny at all, but those in geekdom (particularly
> > UNIX geekdom) will appreciate it.
> >
> > Greg Sullivan, a Microsoft product manager (henceforth MPM),
> > was holding forth on a forthcoming product that will provide
> > Unix style scripting and shell services on NT for
> > compatibility and to leverage UNIX expertise that moves to
> > the NT platform. The product suite includes the MKS (Mortise
> > Kern Systems) windowing Korn shell, a windowing PERL, and
> > lots of goodies like awk, sed and grep. It actually fills a
> > nice niche for which other products (like the MKS suite)
> > have either been too highly priced or not well enough
> > integrated.
> >
> > An older man, probably mid-50s, stands up in the back of the
> > room and asserts that Microsoft could have done better with
> > their choice of Korn shell. He asks if they had considered
> > others that are more compatible with existing UNIX versions
> > of KSH.
> >
> > The MPM said that the MKS shell was pretty compatible and
> > should be able to run all UNIX scripts.
> >
> > The questioner again asserted that the MKS shell was not
> > very compatible and didn't do a lot of things right that are
> > defined in the KSH language spec.
> >
> > The MPM asserted again that the shell was pretty compatible
> > and should work quite well.
> >
> > This assertion and counter assertion went back and forth for
> > a bit, when another fellow member of the audience announced
> > to the MPM that the questioner was, in fact David Korn of
> > AT&T (now Lucent) Bell Labs. (David Korn is the author of
> > the Korn shell)
> >
> > Uproarious laughter burst forth from the audience, and it
> > was one of the only times that I have seen a (by then pink
> > cheeked) MPM lost for words or momentarily lacking the usual
> > unflappable confidence. So, what's a body to do when
> > Microsoft reality collides with everyone elses?
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Nicholas
> --
> Speed doesn't kill -- Deceleration does.
>

----- End forwarded message -----

--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Serv, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
Just go on..and faith will soon return.
[To a friend hesitant with respect to infinitesimals.]
                                        -- D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1717-1783)