myers@cod.NOSC.MIL (Margaret E. Myers) (02/23/90)
I haven't seen this question asked in the last week and a half, so I thought
I'd give it a try.
I want to find out more about Unix environments for 386 machines.
So far the only packages I can get information about are Xenix and Unix
from SCO.
Info about me and my machine...I am used to doing C programming on various
suns running SunOS 4.0.3, so I am Berkeley oriented. I have a 386 clone with
4 meg of memory (64K cache), and a 120 meg hard disk. Really, I want this
system to do C development of (application-type) software that I can run on
the 386, but also port to other Unix systems.
Questions:
1) About Xenix vs. Unix from SCO. Is there any real difference between the
two (other than price)? SCO tells me Xenix is really System V version 3.1
and Unix is System V version 3.2. I don't know enough about System V to tell
if that makes a difference.
2) Running DOS applications under Unix/Xenix/Whatever. How is it to run
DOS applications (like Ventura) under VP/IX with Xenix (or some equivalent
Unix/DOS combination)? Is the performance acceptable? Is it wise to invest
in such software or would it be just as good to have a separate DOS
partition on the disk. I ask this because my understanding is that running
DOS windows on a SPARCstation gives one the performance of a unaccelerated
PC/XT...
3) AT&T and Intel. I have heard that AT&T and Intel are marketing (will
market soon?) Unix for the 386. Any idea how much these systems cost?
Who sells them? Does anyone like/dislike either one? Are they bundled
into separate packages like the SCO products?
4) Who else has (386) Unix systems? Are these "full" unixes or just useful
shells? What are the compilers, debuggers, like? Who sells them?
Thanks for any info you can supply on any part of the above. If you can,
please reply by mail.
--Margaret Myers
Internet: myers@cs.ucsd.edu or
myers@nosc.mil
Bitnet: mmyers@cs.ucsd.edu (I think...)
Usenet: ...ucbvax!sdcsvax!beowulf!myers (I think...)davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (02/25/90)
In article <1796@cod.NOSC.MIL> myers@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (Margaret E. Myers) writes: | 1) About Xenix vs. Unix from SCO. Is there any real difference between the | two (other than price)? SCO tells me Xenix is really System V version 3.1 | and Unix is System V version 3.2. I don't know enough about System V to tell | if that makes a difference. The administration and internals of Xenix are quite different from V.3.2, and SCO told me that they will not be enhancing Xenix beyond things already in development. Xenix reliability seems to be about the best available from ANY PC UNIX, based on trying 3-5 machines on each. | | 2) Running DOS applications under Unix/Xenix/Whatever. How is it to run | DOS applications (like Ventura) under VP/IX with Xenix (or some equivalent | Unix/DOS combination)? Is the performance acceptable? Is it wise to invest | in such software or would it be just as good to have a separate DOS | partition on the disk. I ask this because my understanding is that running | DOS windows on a SPARCstation gives one the performance of a unaccelerated | PC/XT... Screen update under UNIX is slower. I have some measurements indicating that CPU bound jobs run at essentially the same speed (on an unloaded machine), and that some i/o bound jobs run a good bit faster. | | 3) AT&T and Intel. I have heard that AT&T and Intel are marketing (will | market soon?) Unix for the 386. Any idea how much these systems cost? | Who sells them? Does anyone like/dislike either one? Are they bundled | into separate packages like the SCO products? INteractive Systems (ISC) has ix/386, Everex has ESIX. Intel is supposedly getting close to shipping V.4, but I am getting very little response to requests for even information, much less product. | | 4) Who else has (386) Unix systems? Are these "full" unixes or just useful | shells? What are the compilers, debuggers, like? Who sells them? Most people think that ix/386 has the fastest implementation of X-windows. Both SCO and ISC offer faster file systems than standard, and SCO development system has both the SCO (Microsoft) and AT&T compilers, cross compiles for DOS or OS/2, and includes a window debugger COdeView. SCO offers NFS for unix (but we haven't gotten one yet, so it may not be shipping), but not Xenix. ISC is shipping NFS and X. -- bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen) sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon
david@metapyr.UUCP (David Relson) (02/28/90)
There is also 386/ix from Interactive Systems Corp in Santa Monica.