Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: AT&T unix V386 on Compaq hardware?
Message-ID: <15211@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Date: 28 Feb 90 04:02:05 GMT
References: <1990Feb27.044606.14253@csustan.CSUStan.Edu> <12245@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff)
Lines: 33

In article <12245@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <1990Feb27.044606.14253@csustan.CSUStan.Edu> robert@csustan.CSUStan.Edu (Robert Zeff) writes:
>>I would like to install AT&T unix on my Compaq 386/20.  Does AT&T sell their
>>unix for hardware other than AT&T?  I could use SCO unix, but I would like
>>to use the same unix as we have at work, which is AT&T.
>
>I'm not quite sure what you think the problem is.
>UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T; anyone selling a product
>labeled "UNIX" should be doing so with AT&T's approval, which
>means that their product is derived from AT&T's official source code
>for UNIX System V and passes AT&T's System V Validation Suite.

No, Robert's question is quite appropriate.  Besides being an "ultimate"
source for all System V UNIX, AT&T is also a value added reseller of its
own 386 port!  AT&T's own specific release of 386 UNIX includes some
utilities and management tools, and is considered by people who know the
various 386 incarnations to be as good as any of them, where "good"
means major-bug-free, good manuals, easy to install, and good customer
tech support.

BUT, and this is the big but, AT&T only supports their version on AT&T
6386 hardware!  The customer hotline asks for your CPU serial number
right off the bat, and they pull up your 6386 owner file before
dispatching you to a tech.  No 6386, no support.  So although some
distributors seem willing to sell the software unbundled, you shouldn't
take them up on it.

I happen to like the 6386 boxes and consider AT&T hardware+software to
be a winning solution for an office development cluster, but otherwise
there is no way I'd buy AT&T UNIX -- I'd go with Interactive.

Ironically, people who do install AT&T UNIX 386 on non-AT&T boxes say
it's usually pretty smooth.  But the day something breaks, you're SOL.