Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ddsw1!igloo!jjw
From: jjw@igloo.UUCP (John Welch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: All this Microport Flaming: A solid Vote for XENIX
Message-ID: <346@igloo.UUCP>
Date: 31 Dec 87 23:27:03 GMT
References: <4610@well.UUCP> <394@ddsw1.UUCP> <255@spl1.UUCP> <2398@killer.UUCP> <438@cimcor.UUCP> <441@xios.XIOS.UUCP> <2589@killer.UUCP> <2605@killer.UUCP>
Reply-To: jjw@igloo.UUCP (John Welch)
Distribution: na
Organization: igloo, Northbrook, IL
Lines: 30
Summary: How much money is too much?


>Of course I'd rather have a bug-free product, if I can afford it, but XENIX
>is way overpriced, and therefore comparing Microport with it is unfair.

I don't know what Microport costs, but Programmers Connection has what appears
to be the equivilant package, with text package and programmers package, for
$994. It seems to be reasonably close, at least within an order of magnitude
of what igloo's sysop paid for Microport. (igloo has had many serial port
problems with Microport).

What I see that igloo would get from running XENIX would be:
   1. Reliable serial ports that work during UUCP.
   2. The ability to use an RLL hard drive controller, which has been promised
      since last July, but still is not here.
   3. The easy ability to install the SYSGEN tape drive that I have, to be able
      to back up quickly and easily.
   4. No more double panics (which I have heard MAY now be fixed by Microport).

Had Bill and I known how much trouble Microport would be, and how little the
price difference was between it and SCO XENIX, I'm quite sure we would have
somehow found the extra few hundred bucks to buy XENIX. As it stands, we may
wind up doing just that anyway.

Just how much IS a quality product worth, anyway? I still think XENIX is
over-priced, but if you add up the phone bills, the hours spent and so on it
seems to me that XENIX isn't all that expensive after all.


(btw, I have no connection with any companies listed here. The opinions are
all my own, but you can claim them if you really want to. -->jjw@igloo)