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From: mpd@anomaly.sbs.com (Michael P. Deignan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: ODT questions
Keywords: ODT SCO gcc GNU
Message-ID: <3024@anomaly.sbs.com>
Date: 9 Sep 90 14:07:21 GMT
References: <13398@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Organization: Small Business Systems, Inc., Esmond, RI 02917
Lines: 47

ccastdd@prism.gatech.EDU (David Preston Dykes) writes:

>	1)  Are there any of ya'll that are using it but are disatisfied,
>	if so why?

Well, I don't own it, and never will, for several reasons. A colleague of
mine purchased the package, which gave me the opportunity to see what it
was like.

First, its an incredible memory PIG. If you don't have 8mb of RAM, don't
even think of using XWindows. (And, why buy Open Desktop without X Windows?)
When looking at X Windows, I wasn't impressed. In fact, Windows 3.0 for
MessyDos looks just as good, has more configurable parameters, and uses
TONS less memory!

The documentation consists of 2 rather thick manuals, and tons of on-line
documentation. This to me is a drawback, since I prefer tons of manuals
to wade thru, instead of attempting to access online help (which, from
what I saw, required you to run XWindows.)

He had to go thru the installation procedure *5* times before he got the
system configured correct (and, this guy's been doing UNIX for YEARS, not
a few months) each time wading thru the 40+ disks which accompany the
software package.

Disk space is tremendous, and if you install all of the packages on the
system, something in the order of 160mb is required. Also, boot time is
incredible with all software packages installed - I've seen my IBM 4381
boot in less time!

>	3)  Is any one running this on a system as whimppy as a 20MHz
>	386sx with an mfm drive and 4Mb of memory, if so how slow are
>	things (esp. X)?

He ran his on a 16mhz 386DX, which is probably as "fast" as a 20mhz SX,
but he had 8mb of RAM. Still SLOW.

My decision on the product based upon what I've seen (the points above
being the "important" issues to me) is that I'm not going to waste my
money, until a more streamlined product becomes available.

MD
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