lynx-dev Re: FW: [ ... when Microsoft reality collides with everyone elses ... (fwd)]

[Laura Eaves]

Another M$ moment from another mailing list...

> From: Chris Marty <address@hidden>
> To: "'address@hidden'" <address@hidden>
> Subject: FW: [ ... when Microsoft reality collides with everyone elses ...
>        (fwd)]
> Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 09:00:56 -0700 
>
> Typical Microsoft...
>
> > >> > I've been attending the USENIX NT and LISA NT (Large Installation
> > >> > Systems Administration for NT) conference in downtown Seattle
> > this
> > >> > week.
> > >> > 
> > >> > One of those magical Microsoft moments(tm) happened yesterday and
> > >> > I thought that I'd share.  Non-geeks may not find this funny at
> > >> > all, but  those in geekdom (particularly UNIX geekdom) will
> > >> > appreciate it.
> > >> > 
> > >> > Greg Sullivan, a Microsoft product manager (henceforth MPM), was
> > >> > holding forth on a forthcoming product that will provide Unix
> > >> > style scripting and shell services on NT for compatibility and to
> > >> > leverage UNIX expertise that moves to the NT platform.  The
> > >> > product suite includes the MKS (Mortise Kern Systems) windowing
> > >> > Korn shell, a windowing PERL, and lots of goodies like awk, sed
> > >> > and grep.  It actually fills a nice niche for which other
> > products
> > >> > (like the MKS suite) have either been too highly priced or not
> > >> > well enough integrated.
> > >> > 
> > >> > An older man, probably mid-50s, stands up in the back of the room
> > >> > and asserts that Microsoft could have done better with their
> > >> > choice of Korn shell.  He asks if they had considered others that
> > >> > are more compatible with existing UNIX versions of KSH.
> > >> > 
> > >> > The MPM said that the MKS shell was pretty compatible and should
> > >> > be able to run all UNIX scripts.
> > >> > 
> > >> > The questioner again asserted that the MKS shell was not very
> > >> > compatible and didn't do a lot of things right that are defined
> > in
> > >> > the KSH language spec.
> > >> > 
> > >> > The MPM asserted again that the shell was pretty compatible and
> > >> > should work quite well.
> > >> > 
> > >> > This assertion and counter assertion went back and forth for a
> > >> > bit, when another fellow member of the audience announced to the
> > >> > MPM that the questioner was, in fact David Korn of AT&T (now
> > >> > Lucent) Bell Labs. (David Korn is the author of the Korn shell)
> > >> > 
> > >> > Uproarious laughter burst forth from the audience, and it was one
> > >> > of the only times that I have seen a (by then pink cheeked) MPM
> > >> > lost for words or momentarily lacking the usual unflappable
> > >> > confidence. So, what's a body to do when Microsoft reality
> > >> > collides with everyone elses?