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Aircraft OSs

Here’s some descriptions of airplanes run by various operating systems:

DOS: Everybody pushes it till it glides, then jumps on and lets it coast till it skids, then jumps off, pushes, jumps back on, etc.

DOS with QEMM: Same as DOS, but with more leg room for pushing.

Macintosh: All the flight attendants, captains and baggage handlers look the same, act the same and talk the same. Every time you ask a question, you are told you don’t need to know, don’t want to know and everything will be done for you without your knowing, so just shut up.

OS/2: To get on board, you have to have your ticket stamped 10 different times by standing in 10 different lines. Then you fill out a form asking how you want your seating arranged–with the look and feel of an ocean liner, a passenger train or a bus. If you get on board and off the ground, you will have a wonderful trip, except when the rudder and flaps freeze, in which case you have time to say your prayers before you crash.

Windows: Colorful airport terminal, friendly flight attendants, easy access to a plane, uneventful takeoff. Then: BOOM! You blow up without any warning whatsoever.

NT: The terminal and flight attendants all look like those the Windows plane uses, but the process of checking in and going through security is a nightmare. Once aboard, those passengers with first class tickets can go anywhere they want and arrive in half the time, while the vast majority of passengers with coach tickets can’t even get aboard.

Unix: Everyone brings one piece of the plane. Then they go on the runway and piece it together, all the while arguing about what kind of plane they’re building.

CAIRO: The airplane is distributed among 47 different hangars in 13 airports scattered over 8 states, 4 Canadian provinces, and a remote mountain hideaway in Nicaragua. But you don’t need to know where the airplane is or who it belongs to in order to fly it. Actually, you don’t fly the airplane itself; you fly a simulation that behaves just like the real thing except that you don’t go anywhere. But that’s okay, because when the world is at your fingertips you never need to leave home.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Matthew Stibbe says

    September 21, 2009 at 10:27

    I wonder if there's an updated version of this somewhere? It's a bit early-nineties now! Here's my attempt. Any other suggestions?

    Windows 7 = Aerion. Fast, sexy, not out yet.

    Windows Vista = 787. Made up from bits of other OSs but hasn't taken off.

    Windows XP = Boeing 737. Everybody uses it but meh!

    Mac = Gulfstream 550. Sleek, comfortable, sexy but not for the masses.

    Linux = You get exactly what you want and it flies great but you have to build it yourself.

    Ubuntu = A homebuilt with a glass cockpit

    Reply
  2. Sylvia says

    September 22, 2009 at 10:16

    These are hysterical!

    Reply
  3. Vincent, from Plasti says

    September 22, 2009 at 19:51

    The NT one was probably written before 9/11…

    Let me add a personal variant of Linux: runs fine until a particular problem happen, where the crew jumps out with parachutes and tell you "build your own solution".

    Reply

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Matthew Stibbe
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He has an FAA CPL/IR and an EASA PPL/IR and sometimes flies a Cirrus SR-22. He also writes about wine at Vincarta and being a better manager at Geek Boss.
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