Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!newstop!exodus!limes From: limes@sun.com (Greg Limes) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Coherent Unix Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 90 09:26:21 GMT References: <25088@adm.brl.mil> Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM Lines: 58 In-reply-to: I2010901%DBSTU1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu's message of 25 Nov 90 14:28:14 GMT In article <25088@adm.brl.mil> I2010901%DBSTU1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Dipl.Phys. Thomas Wutzke) writes: > In the last two months, a new version of Unix came up: COHERENT UNIX. > Does anybody have any experiences with this Operating System? Or does > someone know about the Hardware needed for this System? I purchased Coherent shortly after version 3.0.0 was announced on the net, and have been using it irregularly ever since (I am still porting personal applications from MS-DOS, which will be removed from my hard disk as soon as I can). Coherent has been around for a good many years; I seem to remember advertisements in '82 or '83, but recently there has been an upserge in its visibility. Overall, quite nice. A few attributes of Coherent: * It is a 7th Edition UNIX lookalike. Don't expect all the whizzies that you are accustomed to on your System V, Berkeley 4.3, SunOS, or other "modern" UNIX system. * It runs on a 80286 based PC/AT with one megabyte of ram. It may run on smaller systems; in fact, it probably does. But my one meg machine is enough. * It doesn't chew up a lot of disk. Ten meg seems to be sufficient for what I am doing right now (but I have allocated another twenty, which I expected to need long ago ...) * Programs are limited to 64k text and 64k data. * A hundred bucks will buy you Coherent. It will also buy you two decent pieces of decent MS-DOS game software. * A few more bucks get you a device driver development kit. Not for the faint of heart, but it makes a nifty break from hacking SunOS kernels at work :-) Some bugs in 3.0.0 were found, and Coherent is now shipping 3.1.0; the turnaround time between when the bugs were found and when shipping of the release that has the fixes was quite swift. Anyway, you need a 286 or 386 box (will 486 work? I dunno), with a meg of memory (more might be nice), and a hard disk (ten meg is kinda the minimum, again, more might be nice). EGA and VGA work (I have tried 'em). I expect just about any video would probably work, but avoid the ones that can't do 80-column modes :-) If you like playing games, keep MS-DOS around somewhere. There is something to be said for huge installed bases. DISCLAIMER 1, for everyone: My only relationship with Mark Williams Co. is as a satisfied customer. DISCLAIMER 2, for lawyers: I don't speak for Sun. -- Greg Limes limes@eng.sun.com "Just One More Bug Fix ..."