Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!zs04+
From: zs04+@andrew.cmu.edu (Zachary T. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: ENIX V.3.2 info
Message-ID: <4YlaPoO00WB5QCWGBM@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 20 Jul 89 23:57:40 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 87


     Several people have requested information describing ENIX, a
low-cost version of Unix for the 386, which I mentioned in a few
previous postings.
     What follows is a quick, commented rundown of what you get
(or what of it that I remember) for the relatively low price of $610.
Although I now run ENIX on my PC, I should note that I've had limited
time to play with it, and that although I don't mind spending large
sums of money for the kind of machine and software I like, I'm not
a software guru, so I can't answer complicated questions about it.

     ENIX is a derivative of AT&T's system V.3.2 for the Intel 80386.
For about $610 (that includes shipping) you get all of the following
as part of the 2-user system with development support:

o       UNIX itself

o       TCP/IP support (kind of mandatory that you install it; works
        even if you don't have a networking card).

o       Streams (networking support, I think they call it)

o       2 kilobyte file system support

o       a reasonable C compiler, lint, lex, etc.

o       a usable, fast 640x480 monochrome X server (VGA).

o       some X clients, demo stuff mostly, also xdm.

o       twm and uwm (X11 window managers) and sample .twmrc and
        .uwmrc files. no awm or gwm, though.

o       a unuseably slow 16-color X server (VGA). No sign of super-VGA
        support under X.

o       both color and mono EGA X server and a big-screen mono X server
        (I haven't tried these, I guess they work)

o       extended-terminal support (terminfo stuff, I think).

o       ftp, rsh, rcp, uucp support (remote file system support, etc.)

o       mail support.

o       Bourne and C shells.

o       system administration and protection stuff.

o       nroff (troff may be there too, I haven't checked).

     I'm sure there are some things I've forgotten, but you get the idea.
A few things they don't give you include:

o       like I said above- a useable color X server.

o       a debugger (dbx is not there).

o       manual pages, or even the man command.

o       bdftosnf: the utility you need to add new fonts to X.

o       emacs

o       MSDOS disk read/write (you can access the drives, there's just no
        support for DOS).

o       ability to run MSDOS tasks under Unix. This is special option.

o       A real C shell (there's no pushd, popd, or jobs, from what
        I can tell). Note, though, that a 'ps' command serves the same
        function as the C shell's 'jobs' command, and that aliases and
        history -are- included.

o       A real 'mv' command (it doesn't relocate directories; there's
        a shell script called mvdir to do this).

     System speed is reasonable, but not fantastic, on a 20 Mhz 386 with
4 megs of zero wait state RAM (specifically, a Gateway 2000 machine). I'd
say it's about as fast as a VAX 11/780.

     A good review of ENIX as well as most of the other major 386 Unix
systems can be found in the Febuary 89 issue of MIPS. Or just ask ENIX for
their broshure, which includes a copy of the review.
     Their number is (415) 683-ENIX.

-Zach T. Smith (zs04@andrew.cmu.edu)