[net.micro.att] UNIX PC summary

stev@seismo.UUCP (Stev Knowles) (05/20/85)

well here it is. my promised summary of the mail i recieved.
the response was under-whelming(sp? who cares?)

basically, here it is:

1) no one expects csh anytime, let alone soon. i heard from one person at
   ucb, and thats the poop from him (him, not them). ksh, on the other hand,
   is running at several att sites, and the people with it seem very pleased
   with it. i also heard from on att person that he had ported
   ksh to his 7300, with no problems, befopre he had found that it had
   already been done. he didnt say done by who, though.
   it seems that the UNIX(*) PC is running SVR1, and there isnt support
   there for it. the word from these people (people, not att) is that ksh
   should replace sh for the shell in SVR3 or 4. it was noted that it costs
   $20k to include ksh in with the rest of your system V stuff, but att wouldnt
   have to pay anyone, so maybe . . . . . .


2) response time. form the notes, and the postings to this news group,
   i think that the speed problem manifests itself when the 'user agent'
   or 'windowing environment' is in use. without it, things seem
   to go fast. there seem to be a significant number of them floating
   around att. this should help get the bugs flushed quickly.

3) what you all are waiting for, i know, *GAMES*. there is a copy of rogue
   running on it at att. possibly, if there becomes a demand, someone
   will port hack, and supply the new sorces to those of us who are interested.
   no one mentioned this, and i was wondering, does the UNIX PC come with
   a games directory?

4) hard disk space: the unix port seems to take up ~3 meg.

5) memory. the accepted low end seems to be 1 meg. i have seem refrences
   to the effect that att was only initally offering .5 meg expansion boards,
   and planned to offer boards with 256k chips.

6) misc. att intends to offer an expansion chassis soon, but all memory will
   need to be in the main housing. no mention of a port to the bus for this
   chassis to be attached to, so i assume the intend to use a slot for it.
   i have read that upon introduction, att had no intention of offering
   a 'pc compatible' expansion board( i believe this was in byte, but i am not
   sure), but this might have changed by now.


att has been sitting on this machine for a few months, until production ramped
up, so that there would be machines available for sale on introduction. i
consider this a wise move on their part, but shit, thats just my thoughts.

i would like to thaks the people who responded. i have not used your names
to protect your privacy, not to claim your views as mine. i will keep, however,
the name of the person who has the rogue port, and i may ask for it in the 
future. dont mail me for the name. if you want to make yourself known, go ahead.


thanx

stev  stev@seismo (where is seismo? well, head east till ya get to the ocean,
		   and look for the rising hot air. thats washington dc.,
		   and you are close,head south, but not too fast . . . . .

jbn@wdl1.UUCP (05/24/85)

     Who owns CSH, anyway?  The U. S. Government?  The Regents of the
University of California?  Bill Joy?  

				John Nagle