Another way to view various operating systems: ---------------------------------------------- VMS is like a Soviet railroad train. It's basically industrial-strength, but when you look at it closely, everything's a little more shabby than you might like. It gets the job done, but there's no grace to it. The Mac operating system is like the monorail at Disney World. It's kind of spectacular and fun, but it doesn't go much of anywhere. Still, the kids like it. Unix is like the maritime transit system in an impoverished country. The ferryboats are dangerous as hell, offer no protection from the weather and leak like sieves. Every monsoon season a couple of them capsize and drown all the passengers, but people still line up for them and crowd aboard. MS-DOS is like the US rail system. It's there, but people just ignore it and find other ways of getting where they want to go. ----------------- For another view: ----------------- For our Systems Programming exam some time ago, we were required to answer the question: Based on your experiences in the assignments, give a brief comparison between the programming environments of UNIX, VMS, DOS and MAC. I wrote: VMS is consistently awful; MAC is awfully consistent UNIX is awfully inconsistent; DOS is inconsistently awful. ----------------- Yet another view: ----------------- It occurred to me a while ago that Unix is much like the U.S. Government: A long time ago, a few brilliant men created a system that empowered its users, gave them freedom, and provided a few essential services. Now it is old, slow, easily corrupted, overly restrictive, too large and confusing for anyone to understand, plagued with inconsistencies, and run by men who only care about money. ----------------- Another... ----------------- Unix is like sex: Once you've tried it, you can't get along without it, if you hadn't, you don't really know what the fuss is all about.