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From: johna@sunybcs.UUCP (John Arrasjid)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Wendin's PCUNIX
Message-ID: <200@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Jun-86 16:54:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.200
Posted: Thu Jun 26 16:54:56 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jun-86 07:23:21 EDT
References: <808@othervax.UUCP>
Reply-To: johna@gort.UUCP (John Arrasjid)
Followup-To: Query on PCUNIX
Distribution: na
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science
Lines: 52




I've been using Wendin's PC-UNIX operating system since April and have been
pretty satisfied with it. I am running it on an IBM PC with two 360k drives
and 640k of memory (AST 6-pack). I have my system set up with a 280k ram disk
and have the commands distributed between a:/bin b:/bin c:/bin and have
$PATH=a:/bin,a:/usr/bin,b:/bin,c:/bin. Needless to say it is definately better
to have a hard drive to run them.

As to compatibility with .exe and .com files, I have had a pretty good success
rate. Not too many .com files will run but quite a few .exe files will run
including XTALK, PC-WRITE (except that the ESC key and the RETURN key don't
work consistently), and a few others. 

The system is configured so that device tta0: is the console, tta1: is com1: ,
tta2: is com2: . There is no device driver for the printer although I've 
managed to somehow do one or two screendumps. I'm hoping that the next release
will have one included. 

For those who haven't seen the ads for PC-UNIX, here is a partial list of
commands: at, atrun, cat, cd, chgrp, cmp, cp, cron, date, df, dstat, find, 
finger, getty, grep, lpd, lpr, ls, mail, mkdir, mkgroup, mkuser, more, mv, 
news, passwd, pr, ps, rm, rmdir, rmgroup, rmuser, stty, time, tty, who, whodo, 
write.

I've experimented running several process at the same time with no significant
decrease in speed although it is noticible. The environment in general has
the feel of a UNI* system. I would prefer a C-shell environment over the Bourne
shell and am currently trying to port one over although I have the constraint
of my limited disk space for compiling.

The source code that is included with the system is a very good idea. The 
internal documentation covers alot of the coding so that it is easy to do
local mods, although it would probably be a good idea to get the Operating
System Toolbox (something I am planning to do in the near future).

Some questions: 
1) Has anyone written a printer driver that I could get ahold of? I'm currently
   using a Panasonic 1092 printer.
2) Has anyone found a word processor that will work with the multi-tasking
   environment? I am currently considering XTC although I would like to use
   PC-WRITE.
3) Has anyone experimented with running a bulletin board with PC-UNIX and/or
   tried to set up there system for remote logins ala a Hayes 1200B modem?
4) Has anyone heard if the next release will support file permissions?
   (ugo + rwxa, with chown, chmod, chtim, etc.)

John Y. Arrasjid
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!johna
CS: johna@buffalo-cs
BI: johna@sunybcs.BITNET