Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!wdl1!bobw
From: bobw@wdl1.UUCP (Robert Lee Wilson Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: 4.3 on VAX 8xxx?
Message-ID: <4350002@wdl1.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jan 88 18:02:56 GMT
Lines: 25


We run 4.3 on a badly overloaded Vax 11/780. In planning an upgrade we
confront a statement that Vax 8xxx machines don't/won't have BSD family
Unix available. I would appreciate mailed comments on the following two
questions:
(as always, if there seems to be wide interest or a pattern in
the answers I will distribute that back to the net.)

(1) How accurate is the statement regarding 8xxx systems and BSD? (We are
of course checking with Mt. Xinu, but it is always nice to have other
sources.)

(2) (Perhaps even more important, for reasons of internal politics... :-))
If we were to switch from 11/780 with 4.3 and a lot of local customization
to 8xxx with Ultrix, what sort of incompatibilities could we expect to
face? How well will Ultrix deal with our Ethernets and Cisco gateways
going off to Arpa? How consistent are goodies like system calls, i.e. can
we expect just to recompile C sources for local code and go?
I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through this
switch: If your experiences are too complex to type in, send me a telephone
number and I will be glad to foot the bill for a lengthier discussion.

Thanks for any information you can give,
Bob Wilson at Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp.
(bobw@ford-wdl1.arpa, (415) 852-6572)