Jon ‘maddog’ Hall introduces the x86 architecture to old Unix
types (of RISC architecture experience).
“If you look at the masthead of this magazine, you see a very
large “Performance Computing,” with a much smaller “UNIX Review.”
This does not fool me. I know that most of you are like me, old
UNIX warhorses who are used to working with real UNIX workstations
and servers–you know, SPARCs, Mips, Alphas, and other RISC
processors. SCSI is a way of life for you, and you boot the
non-Intel UNIX distribution that you get from the hardware
manufacturer and everything works (more or less). The vendor of the
software is the vendor of the hardware, and they know what they
shipped to you and how to install the OS properly (more or less).
This is not exactly the case with PC hardware, which grew up under
the auspices of a non-UNIX operating system (some unkind people say
it grew up under a non-operating system, but that is a matter of
opinion). Linux has adapted to the strangeness of the hardware that
is there. This is not to say that PC hardware is bad, it is
just…different.”
“Now let me see, where did I put that backup tape?”