Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!paul
From: paul@actrix.gen.nz (Paul Gillingwater)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.msdos
Subject: Re: Coherent Unix
Message-ID: <1990Dec27.064226.17686@actrix.gen.nz>
Date: 27 Dec 90 06:42:26 GMT
References: <2776c302-23comp.unix.msdos@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Organization: Actrix Information Exchange
Lines: 34
Comment-To: akcs.moodyblu@vpnet.chi.il.us

In article <2776c302-23comp.unix.msdos@vpnet.chi.il.us> akcs.moodyblu@vpnet.chi.il.us (Matt Weisberg) writes:
> I am looking for some information on Coherent UNIX.  ...

I bought Coherent for US$99.  Not a bad buy, all things considered.

> I have an 80386 with 672MB of hard drive space. 

This is where I hit a problem.  Coherent won't run with a SCSI disk
controller in the current release (3.0), and I found problems when
trying to install on my DOS system.  Coherent can use one of the 4
entries from a standard DOS partition table, but consistently
core-dumped when I tried to /etc/mkfs larger than 100 Mb.  By
reducing this to 60 Mb, it was able to create a usable file system,
but still has problems with fsck.  So it's still pretty flakey in
some areas.

> tell me if this is a good buy? $99.95 seems quite unbelievable. I am also

For the price, you get quite a nice UNIX-like feel, with a non-ANSI
C compiler and Micro-emacs-like editor.  Source code is provided for
lots of stuff (including the editor).  I like Coherent because it is
a great way for people to learn about UNIX -- it's multi-user,
although I haven't tried to break its memory management yet!  It
runs on both 286 and 386 systems.  It feels a bit clunky, but also
is very lean -- fast and compact.  The latter can be a problem if
you are porting bloated software (like rn).

> considering running a UNIX board, so I would be looking for UNIX BBS

I am planning to port Sandy's XBBS to Coherent -- this would make a
nice combination.  Anyone else interested in this?

-- 
Paul Gillingwater, paul@actrix.gen.nz