Item Subject: Message text
To paraphrase Scott M. at Sun: I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than to
see this thread get perpetuated any longer. Neverless, here I am responding
to Denys latest Windows 95 posting (maybe it's just because  haven't had my
coffee yet today (but then again, I don't drink coffee, so I'm likely to be in
this mood all day)).
 
> Gentle Listers,
 
Hi Denys.
 
> During the last few weeks, there have been numerous postings, responses and
> comments about Windows 95.
 
Mostly from you :-)
 
>                             When I placed the original posting in late
> August, I wasn't quite sure what was going to become of it.  There have been
> many interesting comments but at this point, I would like to offer the
> following thoughts for considerations.
 
Oh goody.
 
> Again, let me restate that I think a Windows 95 thread is still very
> pertinent in the HP3000 list.  Earlier I stated that Windows had done more
> for the recrudesence of interest in the HP3000 with client/server than most
> anything else, including MacIntoshes.
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^
They're Apples, not apples.
 
[debatable arguments about how Macs are inferior/irrelevant deleted]
 
[ramblings about Windows 95, NT, Windows 96, the Death of Unix(tm) deleted]
 
Who cares. Windows 95 is just an upgrade to Windows. It doesn't matter at all
whether Windows 95 is GOOD(tm) or BAD(tm). All that matters is that it is
better than the previous versions of Windows, which everyone agrees it is.
Most people running Windows 3.1 will eventually upgrade to Windows 95. So what?
It's not going to change the fundamental balance of the universe or anything.
 
There's not going to be a Windows 96. There's probably never going to be a
major upgrade to Windows ever again. The hardware and compatibility demands
of Windows 95 ensure that everyone who can install Windows 95 will be
ready to upgrade to Windows NT as soon as they get the Windows 95 look and
feel ported to it next year. I think Windows 95 will be a short lived OS.
 
Yes, the whole world is talking about how Windows NT is going to replace
Unix. I haven't seen much more than talk so far. NT has a long way to go
before it will be able to directly replace a Unix or MPE system. It's a
real operating system at heart, but a PC on the surface. So far, people
are just using NT as a better version of the traditional PC file server.
Any Unix users you find who are switching to NT are probably the same ones
who switched to Unix early on when it became the new buzzword.
 
As much as we tend to forget it, operating systems are *not* religions. You
don't have to find the one-true-operating system. Sure it's easy to get
excited about something new, or defensive about what you're currently using
when *everyone else* gets excited about something new, but reality is never
as black and white as the zealots would have you believe.
 
I've noticed that all the early-adopter religious-zealots are always going on
about how wonderful their new computer-religion is, and how you should convert
at once!  Those who do become the pioneers for the new technolgy and suffer
the arrows-in-the-back that always visit those who lead into the unknown. Note
that the zealots never get hurt by this. They aren't the ones who bet their
lives on the new technology, they are just in the business of convincing others
to do so. By the time any number of people have adopted the new technology, the
zealot has given up on the new technology and moved on to something new, and
is back trying to convince you that you should once again venture off into
the unknown.
 
Part of it is the ease at which some people are swayed by the glitz and
marketing hype that surrounds all new products/ideas. Then there is the
feedback effect when these optimistic people talk to each other and articles
get published in Computerworld about it. When you compare an old technology
to a new technology you probably concentrate on the things about the old one
that you don't like (having learned what really does and does not work from
long and possibly painful direct experience), but all you know about the
new one are the good points that its promoters what you to hear about. So
off people go to the new technology in the hope that THIS TIME IT WILL BE
DIFFERENT. Of couse it rarely is.