Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/KT)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: SCO Unix security features
Message-ID: <1990Aug21.031330.8295@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 21 Aug 90 03:13:30 GMT
References: <15759@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <1990Aug17.235745.27374@NCoast.ORG> <1990Aug19.214500.18612@pegasus.com>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/KT)
Followup-To: comp.unix.i386
Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH
Lines: 54

As quoted from <1990Aug19.214500.18612@pegasus.com> by richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk):
+---------------
| >Not my idea, unfortunately.  The machine in question is an Altos 5000; it runs
| >SCO Unix, but *not* the stock version:  it has drivers for MultiDrop and Altos'
| >serial port concentrators (based on past experience with Altos, they should be
| >far more reliable than the norm for PC-class machines), the High Performance
| >File Processor (optional attachment), built-in Ethernet controller and SCSI
| >controller, etc.  I *wish* I could just pick up 386/ix for it!
| 
| I sounds like the Altos hardware has enough strikes against it to condemn
| its selection, just like SCO Unix on the software side.
| 
| Remember, popularity is important when selecting hardware and software.
| Isn't that why most of us here have selected the 386-ATbus platform?  It
| keeps the cost down and the alternatives up.
+---------------

I probably *should* refrain from comment, being that I work for an Altos VAR.
On the other hand, I stay very definitely *out* of sales, so I'll risk it.
In any case, just from a technical standpoint, there are a number of comments
I can make:

(1) Nothing stops you from linking in your own SCSI or serial drivers and
using your own cards.  But from my own experiences, both with the PC line we
also carry and from trying to make ncoast work, SCSI/ESDI is variable in
quality and serial port cards/drivers are pretty much all problematic.

(2) If you're running other kinds of boards, they will work fine; the 5000 is
an EISA machine.  From a technical standpoint, I liked the 2086/3086/2000 bus
much better, but it was proprietary and is now kaputt, since all the machines
have been dropped.  (The 3068 series uses it as well, but it has never been a
big seller except in the Pick marker, which we don't deal with.)

So far, the hardware seems OK, and in fact quite nice; I wish I had the HPFP
version to play with, since it should make our disk-bound database
applications *really* scream.  But time (and the market) will tell.  I did see
that Unix/World, at least, seemed to like it, not that that means anything.

I'd just like to be able to avoid e.g. 6 months+ of trying to make various
port boards work on ncoast and a month trying to get a Digiboard working on a
Dell (for one of our competitors, no less; punishment detail? ;-)  The MDC/2
hasn't faulted me yet, whereas ncoast *still* has modem/port problems.  And
RS-232 is one of the few hardware areas that I've worked with ever since I got
into this racket.

All of which does *not* mean that if the software problems aren't resolved, I
won't start pushing for us to switch to a different brand... I expect both the
hardware and the software to work reasonably well.

++Brandon
-- 
Me: Brandon S. Allbery			    VHF/UHF: KB8JRR/KT on 220, 2m, 440
Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG		    Delphi: ALLBERY
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