Blathr Wayne Lorentz

I am both impressed and disappointed with macOS.

I set up a new user account so that I could telnet in to a macOS box to perform certain tasks that can only be done via telnet, and with a CLI.

Not surprisingly, in 2023, macOS doesn't come with terminal definitions for a TRS-80 Model 100. It's a 40-year-old machine, so it makes sense that I would have to build my own. Which I did.

But as I was doing so, I noticed that macOS still comes with terminal definitions for far older, and more obscure computers than the one I'm connecting to it with.

• Altos machines
• Amigas
• Apple Lisas (natch)
• 85 types of AT&T terminals
• C. Itoh (I didn't even know C. Itoh made computers)
• Commodore B-128s
• HeathKits
• I.B.M. computers running Aixterm in Japanese
• Microbees
• Minitels
• Dozens of NCR terminals
• Several types of Kaypros
• Four types of Zenith machines

Granted, these terminal definitions are just part of the stock set that is packed in with many Unixes. But I still find it surprising that after a half-century, these files continue to proliferate, and still exist, even though the number of people who would use them is basically zero.

The tech world in 2021:

• Meta wants to be the new Google
• Google wants to be the new Microsoft
• Microsoft wants to be the new Oracle
• Oracle wants to be the new IBM

Meanwhile,

• Apple wants to be the new Sony
• Amazon.com wants to be the new Sears

Nothing is new.

It turns out that the IT department wonʼt notice you installing your own Mapnik tile server on localhost if itʼs too busy freaking out about your terminal emulator that transforms an HDMI connection into a bad 3270 display, complete with burn-in, flickering, and horizontal hold issues.

Microsoft is using Start Me Up, a Rolling Stones song from 1981, to introduce is flagship operating system in 1995.

I'm not sure if that's ironic or prophetic.

Perhaps it's an admission that Windows is 14 years behind OS/2.