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From: mjranum@gouldsd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: UNI* -> PC Anyone ?
Message-ID: <117@gouldsd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 26-Jun-86 09:02:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: gouldsd.117
Posted: Thu Jun 26 09:02:35 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Jun-86 05:11:44 EDT
References: <114@gouldsd.UUCP> <2133@hammer.UUCP>
Organization: Gould Inc, ASDD, Landover, MD
Lines: 43
Keywords: Real Operating systems

> I don't think that "committeeware" will fill the need.  Feel free
> to pursue that course, but don't lose sight of the other alternatives.
> Good software systems, even more than individual pieces of software,
> come from a unified vision.
	
	The beauty of UNI* is the extravagant number of nifty tools that
are available to the user. I personally do not want a full-blown UNIX
pc. (for many reasons, not least of which is that I have access to real
UNIX so why bother?)   My posting was an attempt to encourage users who
have ported the more useful tools (sed, vi, awk, yacc, lex, gakk, choke, 
wheeze, etc) that will run on a PC under an MSDOS environment. Since pc's
do support pipes and such, it is a shame not to take advantage of them.  
I realize it is unrealistic to expect UNIX to run on a 64K micro, and 
Mess-Dos is a good OS for a small machine. On the other hand, how many
times have you wanted nifty unix tools like(lengthy list of names)  ?
	At present, I have been assembling a list, and am trying to assemble
actual source/exe/etc of a large number of nice toys that I will then make
arrangements to propagate. "committeeware" is a good word for it, but as
long as I can type "make" and have things happen, I'll be happy.
> 
> I have also heard that Wendin's PC/UNIX does something like this.  And
> a product out of Canada, the MKS Toolkit, provides a very complete set
> of utilities.  I think all of these products cost about $100.  This is
> not exhorbitant when you compare value for dollar paid with the rest of
> the software you are running. (You did pay for it didn't you?)

	Yes, I paid my 100$ and bought PCUNIX. I have a super XT I build
with 640K ram that runs 2.8X the speed of an IBM. Running PCUNIX it still
crawls. Obviously PCUNIX is for an AT with a patient owner. It also has an
annoying tendency to hang at inconvenient times, or otherwise die. My main
reason for getting PCUNIX was to get thier sh source, among other things. 
It's a good idea, but I think it needs work before people can take it 
seriously.
	Anyhow, I repeat the call: those of you with neat tools who are
willing to disseminate them, drop me a line, tell me what you got, and
at least we'll have a chance of having our PC look less brain-damaged.

Marcus J Ranum.

"I don't care if my floppies are only 5 1/4"  - I have *TWO*!!"
-- 

*All opinions expressed aren't even mine, let alone those of Gould, Inc.*