satoshi@othervax.UUCP (satoshi yoshida) (06/13/86)
The 'what''s new' column in the June 86 issue of BYTE features an article describing Wendin's PCUNIX which sells for $99 US, sources included. This may be a premature enquiry, but has anyone tried this package ? I am planning to send BYTE a 'reader service' enquiry on this product, and will post further information on it if there is enough demand. The product features 3-terminal support, Bourne shell, more than 70 commands, *.exe and *.com file compatibility, MS-DOS system call translation, event-driven scheduler which supports a mix of timeshared & real-time processes, UNIX system calls from various languages. It runs on IBM PCs and compatibles (I quote) with min 384K bytes and a 5M hard disk. Sounds interesting. ...!philabs!micomvax!othervax!satoshi "Open the pod door please, IBM-111..." P.S. Was/is the Bourne shell available from e.g. net.sources or anywhere else on the net?
bruceb@telesoft.UUCP (06/25/86)
> > The 'what''s new' column in the June 86 issue of BYTE features an article > describing Wendin's PCUNIX which sells for $99 US, sources included. This > may be a premature enquiry, but has anyone tried this package ? ... I have not tried PCUNIX, however I *have* tried PCVMS. I've looked at the sources, looked into the toolbox sources, etc., and found that while the product is pretty nifty, it just isn't close enough to the real thing for me. A couple things you will notice. The commands (utilities) will probably all be there. You will, at first, be excited by the fact that you are seeing all your favorite utilities in the table of contents. Upon second notice, you will find that they function about the same, however not as you would like. I don't know why Wendin didn't bother to do these products up well; I'm certain they could sell for more if they were more stable/clean. Maybe they didn't duplicate UNIX and VMS more closely because of contractual or copyright problems. PCVMS certainly didn't appear to be the work of someone interested in creating a VMS clone. I have a complete review I did for some friends about PCVMS and the OS Toolbox if anyone is interested. Send me mail; if enuf people request it, I'll post it to the net. And, as a last note, let me say that while I didn't really find the products well done or working properly, they are certainly worth the price just to see the source. If I had time, I would use their toolbox to create a PROPER PCVMS (the toolbox is great)! bruce -- bang!- allegra!\ \ crash! \ gould9!--\ ihnp4! \ \ >--sdcsvax!---->--telesoft!bruceb (Bruce Bergman N7HAW) noscvax! / / scgvaxd! / sdencore!--/ ucbvax! / / talaris!-
johna@sunybcs.UUCP (John Arrasjid) (06/26/86)
I've been using Wendin's PC-UNIX operating system since April and have been
pretty satisfied with it. I am running it on an IBM PC with two 360k drives
and 640k of memory (AST 6-pack). I have my system set up with a 280k ram disk
and have the commands distributed between a:/bin b:/bin c:/bin and have
$PATH=a:/bin,a:/usr/bin,b:/bin,c:/bin. Needless to say it is definately better
to have a hard drive to run them.
As to compatibility with .exe and .com files, I have had a pretty good success
rate. Not too many .com files will run but quite a few .exe files will run
including XTALK, PC-WRITE (except that the ESC key and the RETURN key don't
work consistently), and a few others.
The system is configured so that device tta0: is the console, tta1: is com1: ,
tta2: is com2: . There is no device driver for the printer although I've
managed to somehow do one or two screendumps. I'm hoping that the next release
will have one included.
For those who haven't seen the ads for PC-UNIX, here is a partial list of
commands: at, atrun, cat, cd, chgrp, cmp, cp, cron, date, df, dstat, find,
finger, getty, grep, lpd, lpr, ls, mail, mkdir, mkgroup, mkuser, more, mv,
news, passwd, pr, ps, rm, rmdir, rmgroup, rmuser, stty, time, tty, who, whodo,
write.
I've experimented running several process at the same time with no significant
decrease in speed although it is noticible. The environment in general has
the feel of a UNI* system. I would prefer a C-shell environment over the Bourne
shell and am currently trying to port one over although I have the constraint
of my limited disk space for compiling.
The source code that is included with the system is a very good idea. The
internal documentation covers alot of the coding so that it is easy to do
local mods, although it would probably be a good idea to get the Operating
System Toolbox (something I am planning to do in the near future).
Some questions:
1) Has anyone written a printer driver that I could get ahold of? I'm currently
using a Panasonic 1092 printer.
2) Has anyone found a word processor that will work with the multi-tasking
environment? I am currently considering XTC although I would like to use
PC-WRITE.
3) Has anyone experimented with running a bulletin board with PC-UNIX and/or
tried to set up there system for remote logins ala a Hayes 1200B modem?
4) Has anyone heard if the next release will support file permissions?
(ugo + rwxa, with chown, chmod, chtim, etc.)
John Y. Arrasjid
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!johna
CS: johna@buffalo-cs
BI: johna@sunybcs.BITNET