Linux/open software (was Bill Gates writes...)

Derrick Fogle, MLERF dfogle at mlerf.org
Fri Aug 7 09:35:04 PDT 1998


On Fri, Aug 7, 1998, 8:31:19 PM US CDT Les Schaffer wrote:


>its one OS that does not deal with itchy fingers very well. AND IT
>NEEDS A PRE-EMPTIVE MULTI-TASKING SYSTEM!

Ah, the holy grail of the MacOS! Someday, we'll know; someday, we'll know. The corollory question is who really truly needs pre-emptive multitasking? There are lots of buzzwords that technocrats advertise that are nice, and even necessary for some cases, but go virtually unused in many others. The idea that anything that could be done with an OS needs to be done with an OS or other software is what creates the behemoth bloatware packages we all deal with today.

A side note to multitasking in WinNT; the multitasking is really a bit of a hack; mouse movement is still interrupt driven not timeslice driven. This means that if you have a mission critical box - like 911 call processing - and something happens to move the mouse, the processor cycles redline and you lose a half-dozen calls.

It shouldn't be too hard for the left to endorse alternative: OS's, Lifestyles, etc.

______________________________________ Derrick Fogle - the "Computer Guy" Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation Heartland Lions Eye Banks dfogle at mlerf.org - www.mlerf.org



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