[Coco] Re: OS Vulnerabilities

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 10:37 AM 2/28/04 -1000, Alex wrote:
>Let us break this up with a few OSes:
>Windows, OS/2, Plan9, MacOS, AmigaDOS, FreeBSD, Linux

Thanks for the rundown. I asked about VMS, but John covered that separately.

Clearly, based on your list, Plan 9 is out of it (heck, I don't even know
what that is).

My questions were definitely biased, because I intended a system that is,
as shipped, ready to go with all those features available as part of the
OS, or available as consumer or professional products. I should have made
clear I wasn't talking about the hobbyist or geek levels. Are these OSes
really functional with a wide variety of products and activities? Heck, any
OS that supports and is supported by hardware/processors can be clubbed
into functionality. My use of "modern" meant, essentially, plug-and-play
operation for software and hardware.

So the problem for me is that you show Linux as doing all these. That's an
evaluation difference for sure! I know that Linux might be able to do some
of these higher-level tasks, but only at a "toy" level. Yes, there are
expensive dedicated systems (such as Hollywood video production) that have
Linux under the hood. But such custom systems are pretty much irrelevant to
the OS anyway, so long as the OS doesn't choke. In fact, the repertoire of
Linux programs in some areas is quite poor (audio and graphics in
particular). If, for example, there aren't drivers for 90+% of the high-end
audio cards, the OS is functionally debilitated in that area.

I'm also interested to know that those systems are supposed to handle Type
1 and OpenType. Does this support come installed, or are you talking about
add-ons? My year-old Red Hat Linux sure doesn't have Type 1 or OpenType
support.

What GUI ships with FreeBSD, by the way? It isn't one of those "pretend" X
GUIs, is it? ;)

Just a few particulars...

>> Does it have a MSWord-compatible text editor?
>Sleazy question.  Is it able to handle this proprietary format?
>Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Some	Yes	Yes

This is not a sleazy question at all. MSWord is the default word processing
format, squall though you might about that. There is no
business-to-business trade that does not use MSWord for its document
creation and exchange, save for a few niche areas (mostly in techdom and
[decreasingly] music production and print shops).

>> Is there a musical notation program for it?
>Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Now that's stretching it *very* thin. Composition (including engraving) is
my field, so I know that answer. What passes for a music notation program
in some of these (such as LilyPond or the MusicTex) is either hobbyist
software or failed software. Heck, you can always find hobbyist-level
stuff, including for the CoCo. :) Hardly anybody is even using Score
anymore because, despite its nice output, command-line scoring was not for
engravers or musicians.

>> Have digital camera interfaces and software?
>Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
>> Firewire?
>Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Interesting conflict, as Firewire is the only interface for many (if not
most) DV cameras.

>As you can see Windows, MacOS, Linux, and FreeBSD can do _all_ of 
>these, AmigaDOS is pretty close to all, and OS/2 fares ok in spite of 
>the fact that it has been out of development for a decade.

Again, I think this is a stretch. Linux is really out of the running for
the serious work many of these areas require -- and if Linux is, then
FreeBSD certainly is. I haven't looked at Amiga in years; though it once
was useful, it's been largely replaced by Mac software because of the
system's serious limitations. And if you consider these to be OS/2
capabilities, then my jaw's really hittin' the floor!

Dennis