Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!sunic!uupsi!nyser!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!amdcad!sun!snafu!lm
From: lm@snafu.Sun.COM (Larry McVoy)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: The value of QNX
Keywords: IBMPC/AT/386, Distributed.
Message-ID: <130118@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 11 Jan 90 04:44:30 GMT
References: <3528@zorba.Tynan.COM> <2525@softway.oz>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: lm@sun.UUCP (Larry McVoy)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 32

In article <2525@softway.oz> gary@softway.oz (Gary Corby) writes:
>ant@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (Anthony Murdoch) writes:
>
>>There is a disagreement as to whether it is *NIX compatible.  From what
>>I can work out, there is a fair amount of compatability, but because it
>>is developed with the idea of distributed processing on IBM PC's and
>>because of some legal probs they had at one stage with AT&T, there are
>>a few differences.
>
>I am very far from being a QNX expert, but then again there doesn't 
>seem to be a lot of experienced QNX users out there so I'll throw in
>what little I know.  QNX is not *NIX compatible, though there tends to
>be enough similarity that porting is relatively easy.  For example, 
>UNIX signals become QNX exceptions.  Exception values do not necessarily
>carry the same meaning as the equivalent UNIX signals, but they behave
>in pretty much the same way.

I've used it a bit.  It's not Unix or even very close.  What it is is
a _F_A_S_T_ networked os.  Remote devices (disks, terminals, whatever).
Really nice on a bare bones 8086.  Does zillions of context switches 
per second.

Personally, I'd hammer on Quantum for at least POSIX compat and
better yet SVID II compat C environments.  I haven't used QNX for
several years so maybe they have that now.

Bottom line: if you want Unix, this ain't it.  If you want a usable
C environment on cheap, cheap, cheap networked hardware - this is it.
---
What I say is my opinion.  I am not paid to speak for Sun, I'm paid to hack.

Larry McVoy, Sun Microsystems     (415) 336-7627       ...!sun!lm or lm@sun.com