> I'm curious about what you think the benefits of Unix over NT are,
> also seriously.  I've been working with Unix for about 7 years now
> both in the kernel and out, and I can't think of any.

Hmm, well I haven't been playing around with Unix for quite that long, 
but a quick (off the top of my head) list of a few things:

* Unix IS scalable.  Currently Unix (in one form or another) runs on 
20-processor (and up) work stations, MVS mainframes (IBM is working 
towards getting MVS Spec 1170 compliant), Crays, other nefarious 
super-computers, right down to IBM PCs.

* Currently the big thing in the business world (re-engineering/rightsizi
ng) is moving legacy applications from Mainframes to Unix workstations.  
It'll be a few years yet before the right-sizing process will start 
porting legacy apps to NT machines.  Currently, all of these tools are 
designed for Unix.

* If you want to connect up to the Internet (for any reason), Unix is 
still the way to go.  Look at all the Unix<->Internet connectivity 
software and then look at the NT equivalents (I'm talking both client 
and server side software).  When people like Apache and others come to 
the stage when they write their software so that the first beta release 
is aimed at NT machines, then Unix will start relinquishing this role.

* Is Tuxedo available for NT yet?  (Honest question - I really don't 
know).

* I think Caldera will open up a new market in recycling old computer 
equipment.  This is just speculation here as I have no idea whether this 
will work but I don't see why not.  Given that the Willows WABI product 
runs on top of X, I can foresee opportunities for companies to install a 
central applications server and reusing old 386s as pure X-Terminals.  
Just give these 386sa decent video card and network card, grab a decent 
X-server and you've can start utilising applications running from the 
application server.  A powerful 100MHz Pentium with 32 or 64 megs of 
memory, could server quite a few Xterminals and would probably work out 
quite a bit cheaper than upgrading everyone's 386 machine.

* Caldera, Linux and quite a few other Unix systems will shortly be able 
to take advantage of Unix software, Windows software, Mac software and 
DOS software.  Currently, NT can only handle NT, Windows 3.11 and DOS 
software.  More choice means users are better able to choose the right 
software to fit the task at hand.

There are probably a few others (but I'm running short of time).


Regards,
Patrick D'Cruze
pdcruze@mail.li.org