Xref: utzoo comp.unix.microport:357 comp.unix.xenix:1814
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-crg.llnl.gov!bowles
From: bowles@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Jeff Bowles)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport,comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Re: Bell Technologies UNIX/386
Message-ID: <5628@lll-winken.llnl.gov>
Date: 30 Mar 88 18:10:49 GMT
References: <201@xrtll.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@lll-winken.llnl.gov
Reply-To: bowles@lll-crg.llnl.gov.UUCP (Jeff Bowles)
Distribution: na
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lines: 27
Keywords: 386 80386

"Has anyone had any experience with the Bell Tech 80386 Unix?"

I have some, but not a lot - in the past couple of months, I've started
working on a 80386 machine running Bell Tech's hacks to SVR3. As I
understand it, Intel did the port, and Bell Tech provided drivers.

1) It's fast enough for me as a single user, and I've nothing good or
bad to say about it as a multiple-user machine.

2) They provide most of the SVR3 distribution, as you'd expect, and
reconfiguring the kernel is pretty easy. You don't get DWB
(nroff/troff) because it's not part of SVR3. It's a pretty vanilla port
of SVR3 (which is good in that you don't get weirdness added in by the
porter, and bad because it's bug-for-bug the same as the other SVR3's.)

3) Bell Tech has an RFS available for Ethernet, running (gad!) an AT&T
internal protocol, NPACK. I was more than a little displeased to find
out that they were using it, but... it seems to work okay. (If memory
serves, the main problem is that when it's broken, NO ONE can figure
out why - but when it works, it's fine.)

I have things to say about their technical support of their product,
but would prefer to put that in private correspondence.

The product seems pretty good, and there have been few suprises.

	Jeff Bowles
	New York City