Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!mtxinu!unisoft!hoptoad!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill
From: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why unix doesn't catch on
Message-ID: <490@bilver.UUCP>
Date: 5 Apr 89 14:51:57 GMT
References: <3177@imagen.UUCP> <1309@bucket.UUCP> <7956@chinet.chi.il.us> <13420@steinmetz.ge.com> <8029@chinet.chi.il.us> <13449@steinmetz.ge.com> <29177@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1922@dataio.Data-IO.COM>
Reply-To: bill@bilver.UUCP (bill vermillion)
Organization: W. J. Vermillion, Winter Park, FL
Lines: 22

In article <1922@dataio.Data-IO.COM> bright@dataio.Data-IO.COM (Walter Bright) writes:
}In article <29177@bu-cs.BU.EDU> madd@buit4.bu.edu (Jim Frost) writes:
}<The biggest problem with UNIX on the PC is there is no single version.
.....  
}Unix suffers from two killer problems:
}1. Lack of media compatibility.
}	Silly unix vendors invariably invent a new file format. I haven't
}	seen one yet where you could write a 5.25" disk under one
}	vendor's unix and read it on another's.
}2. Lack of binary compatibility.
}	Can't compile on one unix and run on another, even if the
}	hardware is the same. Source code compatibility simply isn't
}	good enough.

Current Unix version for the 386 from ATT & Interactive can read Xenix disks.
SCO will shortly be shipping their version that can read and write both ways.

Basically the 386 ports are compatible among mfrs.   You can take Xenix
applications and run them on Unix on some versions NOW.  
-- 
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!rtmvax!bilver!bill
                      : bill@bilver.UUCP