From: utzoo!decvax!duke!mcnc!dfh
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.wanted
Title: Re: Which small UNIX system would YOU buy?
Article-I.D.: mcnc.1616
Posted: Wed Mar 30 23:44:44 1983
Received: Thu Mar 31 03:28:13 1983
References: mcnc.1589

A few weeks ago, I submitted the following query:


  Nearly every week, some new 16/32-bit microcomputer announces a
UNIX or UNIX-like operating system for their hardware.  Many of these
are small (1-4) multiuser systems, and generally cost between 9-15K.
This price range is within reach by many departments at small-medium
size universities, which is my primary concern.
  So, for all of you who have small, relatively inexpensive multiuser
UNIX systems, I have 3 questions:

1)  What system do you have, and why did you pick it?

2)  What system would you buy today?

3)  What is the worst system you have seen, and why?

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=


To which I received the following responses worthy of posting.  Thanks
to those of you who replied.

					David Hinnant
					N.C. Educational Computing Service
					(919) 549-0671
					ucbvax!decvax!duke!mcnc!tucc!ecs!dfh

=======================================================================
We have a plexsus system which is z8000 based. The biggest complaint I have
with it is that they don't take full advantage of the segmentation of the
chip. The Z8000 supports multiple segments, each of which is accessed thru
a segmentation register. To make things easy, the makers of the plexsus
decieded to use only 2 segment registers, one for data, one for text.
This limits the address space of processes to 128K.

=======================================================================



The system I would most recommend is the Onyx C8002.
Although it has a 128K I+D addressing limitation, it is pretty fast,
and quite reliable. It's been around for about 3 years now, and was
one of, if not the, first small Unix systems. The major drawback is
dealing with Onyx itself for software support. They basically can't tell
a C program from a Basic program, much less a kernal from a hole in the
wall. However, after 3 years of work, their stuff works better than any other
I've seen. By the way, the Unix port that Onyx uses was NOT done by
Microsoft, a big plus in my book. They are running system 3, which ATT
uses on their Onyxes; much cooperative work was done on the port; therefore
the Onyx system 3 stuff is really and truly system 3. The C8002 is a little
more expensive than most, about 17K I think.

As for the worst system I've seen, there is no doubt in my mind that it
is the Zilog system. The major problem is the atrocious C compiler that
they have come up with. Trying to be clever about register usage and
argument passing, they have made it very difficult to move C code that
runs on any other machine I've tried to the Zilog, and have it work.

=======================================================================


	In the $10K range I bought an "old" 16 bitter called an 11/23 and
put Western Electric Unix V on it, plus an additional $2K for VENIX.
After all, for $800 your entire school (!) can get the System V license
and software, so the incremental cost is zilch.  VENIX is an enhancement
which allows me to do data acquisition in real time while servicing normal
multiuser requests in parallel.


=======================================================================


we have tried both the pixel and the fortune.

pixel:
	the unix that is delivered with the computer is a full set.
        ( cc, csh, vi ... through rogue 3.7 )

        the hardware seems quite solid, we had a demmo unit for 2 weeks
        with no problems of any sort, includeing no non power related
        crashes.

        the pixel terminal & its keyboard are the shittyest i have ever
        (in 18 years of computers )  worked with.

        we are recomending this computer to a number of sites here at
        harvard and elsewhere.

        we have found only two problems with the software
             A/ df does not list the root file system

             B/ uucp does not work to our 11/44. ( this seems to be
                a problem with microsoft ports, the fortune has the
                same problem )

fortune:
       the unix delivered was a SMALL subset of what i