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Re: a bit more on Native Inferno for the PC?

Rob (inferno team), Sam, etc.,

Suppose some entity wanted to develop a "standard Native Inferno PC
platform" and  make it available to the general Inferno developer public.

There might be enough interest (I think there is) for such a platform to
exist (pretty much as I described it in previous mesages).

You've identified a number of risk factors ( -- changing hardware by
vendors, subtle changes in Bios software etc) to make this seem infeasible.

If someone else took aon the risk factors you mention -- would your team be
interested in participating in making a "Standard Native Inferno for PC"
distribution?

thanks

ted


At 11:34 AM 12/30/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Releasing a native PC implementation of Inferno would open a
>Pandora's box.  The cries to add just this driver, or handle just this
>feature, would be deafening, especially when mingled with the
>wails of those who built one of these `standard' PCs only to find
>that the manufacturers change the specifications of the piece
>parts they ship without notification.
>
>If you haven't tried it yourself, you cannot appreciate how hard
>it is to build software to run on bare PCs.  If it seems that you've
>touched a nerve here, you have: an inflamed one, at that.
>
>We've been through this before with Plan 9.  Until the industry,
>or perhaps a manufacturer, ships a well-defined immutable PC,
>we will not be in the business of shipping software to run on
>bare PC hardware, nor in the business of defining what that
>hardware should be.
>
>-rob
>
>
>
>
                        Ted
***************************************************************************
Ted Kochanski, Ph.D.
Sensors Signals Systems  ---  "Systematic Solutions to Complex Problems"
http://www.sensorsys.com
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