[OT]Re: Sphere

John Hinsley jhinsley at telinco.co.uk
Sat Aug 11 14:12:51 UTC 2001


albanread at mac.com wrote:
> 
> Heard of Mac OSX?
> Its based on UNIX but looks good and comes with free objective C tools.
> I dont know objective C but I am learning it and it looks a lot like
> smalltalk.
> (the programs it creates are reasonably sized and fast.)
> 


I'm not sure who this is intended for, and I certainly don't want to
start Mac bashing (especially on this list ;-). I rather like the idea
that there are different OSes: being different is fun. But that doesn't
mean they are equally good.

My own guess is that Apple will, sooner or later, have to drop Mac OS in
favour of OSX. That is, if it remains in the software business at all. 

OSX looks to be BSD with the Mach microkernel and a pretty front end. As
such, it wouldn't seem to offer anything that isn't already out there in
some shape or form for free. You could argue that the combination is
exquisite and that a microkernel is a must have, but to me it seems like
an idea 5 years too late (and, what, 10 years after Jobs originally
started pushing it?). 

Of course, the objective C stuff has also been around a long time (for
free). I ought to take a look at it. Seems to me that it has a really
devoted set of adherents, but I'm not aware of any real cross
fertilisation between the Smalltalk domain and the objective C one.

Cheers

John
-- 
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Marx: "Why do Anarchists only drink herbal tea?"
Proudhon: "Because all proper tea is theft."
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