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From: pcolsen@super.org (Peter C Olsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ncr
Subject: Help --- Should I buy a TOWER?
Message-ID: <418@wrangler.WLK.COM>
Date: 12 Dec 90 18:55:05 GMT
Sender: plus@wrangler.WLK.COM
Lines: 27
Resender: tower@wrangler.wlk.com (NCR Tower Mailing List)


I'm asking for advice.  

I'm a part-time graduate student and aspiring software consultant
who'd like to move from an XT to a Unix environment.

I have an opportunity to buy an NCR TOWER running Unix 3(?) with a 
72 Meg harddisk and two Wyse terminals for "under $1000". (The machine
is up for bids --- all bids have been under $1000.)

Unfortunately the people selling the machine are business persons with
not much technical background --- for example, they don't know if the
machine has any software development utilities --- like a compiler
etc. (They can describe the spreadsheet and database software.)  

This raises some questions:

--- is the compiler "standard" in the "business" Unix (I've never
    heard of version 3.)
--- does the system usually include all the Unix utilities?
--- can I port the Gnu gcc or g++ compilers?  How about gnu emacs?

Finally, are there any other questions I should ask of them?
 
Thank you very much for reading my posting.

Peter Olsen   pcolsen@super.super.org