Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!bfmny0!tneff From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: '386 Unix Wars Keywords: sco unix interactive wars Message-ID: <33791527@bfmny0.BFM.COM> Date: 18 Dec 90 03:33:23 GMT References: <276d312d-8aecomp.unix.i386@point.UUCP> Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) Lines: 93 Warning -- this took its own reins and turned into a flame. In article <276d312d-8aecomp.unix.i386@point.UUCP> carson@point.UUCP (Carson Wilson) writes: >I'm trying to build an Intel 80386-based Unix machine for programming, and >am having a difficult time determining which of the various i386 Unix >vendors to support with my purchase. Try defining what you want to DO with your system, then checking to see who offers what you need to do it. Individual value added UNIX vendors do differ in terms of which options they support, which they bundle and so forth. Right now it's not hard to make an informed choice if you read the literature. >As anyone shopping around for Unix system software soon discovers, there >is a war on. Oh please. Until they start issuing gas masks at COMDEX, the only thing a 'war' means to the average UNIX consumer is that pricing is more attractive. That's good news, but functionality is still more important. > At least two or three manufacturers are actively competing >for the desktop Unix market. More like six or seven. Crack a magazine! > It appears that the Santa Cruz Operation >(SCO) has grabbed the largest piece of the market so far, but is facing >intensive competition from Interactive Systems Corporation. AT&T and >Intel also market Unix software for the i386, but seem to be less >aggressive in pushing their product lines. This is like a Computer Newsflash for October 1988. Dell and Everex are going crazy. Intel bought Bell Tech and is putting full page spreads in the trade mags. AT&T has always sold hardware to institutional accounts and supplied standard software to run on it. >There is also a product named "Xenix." Xenix was originally Microsoft's >tradename for its Unix clone. The name has now been licensed to SCO and >probably other firms. From what I understand, Xenix is a less >sophisticated, but also less expensive alternative to desktop Unix. Xenix >lacks some of the capabilities of Unix, but requires only about 1/2 the >memory and disk storage Unix needs. According to a salesperson at SCO, >though, Xenix is "on the way out" as a system standard. Did I say 1988? I may have been too generous. >I have generally found plenty of sales and support people who are happy to >"inform" me of the relative merits of their software over that of other >firms, but I haven't seen any discussion of this on Usenet. In what, the past three days? All we do is beat this subject to death with a posthold digger six times a month until Hell freezes over! > I'd like to >know your views on: > >1) Relative merits of Xenix vs. Unix. > >2) Experiences of end users with SCO, Interactive, and other firms. Is that all. See below. >The i386 Unix market is evolving quite rapidly. Did it say that in the WEEKLY READER UNIX Supplement, or what? > I feel we should discuss >this topic far more actively while we still have a chance to determine the >direction desktop Unix will take. If we allow market forces alone to >decide which standards succeed, we may be disappointed in the long run. Excuse me a moment. >Ahem< OK, all better. My gentle suggestion is that it might be better to get some kind of a ****ing clue where UNIX 386 is at today (1990 for readers with calendars) before worrying overmuch about thumping the nasty ole market forces and determining "direction." In the meantime, shut up and buy something. You want the best deal in town? Buy one of the SVR4 developer upgrades. For $400 to $800 you get a full developer kit including NFS, RFS, ANSI C, debuggers, Open Look, TCP/IP etc., plus a little buglist a blind man could work around. Some of them claim to want your 3.2 boot disk in exchange. If nobody you know has a backed-up original they'll part with, just send the money and see if you don't get the software. These people aren't in business to refuse your money. Apologies to the readership for the flame portions above -- something rang my fatuity meter.