gmd@ubbs-nh.MV.COM (George MacDonald) (11/20/89)
C= has been touting Unix for over a year now. I bought my 2500(Dec 88) under the impression that unix was comming out "real soon now". After six months of waiting I saw a version of unix running at SIGGRAPH in early august. It was a 5.3 port with some small but interesting additions, /dev/screen and /dev/amiga to give you an idea. The box was running a strange but functional window manager, personally I didn't like it. The box also had a 68030, an ethernet card and a cartridge tape. It was hooked up on a network, NFS the r* commands seemed to work fine. In fact as a unix box it passed my tests as FULLY functioning, I hogged the machine for several hours(writting shell scripts, programs and poking arround with the devs and looking at the interesting new include files). Of course the machine was not integrated in any way with AmigaDOS, which is good(if your a unix pureist) and bad(if your a heavy Amiga user). I suggested C= ought to just sell it as a vanilla unix package and worry about integrating it with windows and AmigaDOS later, needless to say I got nowhere. After the show I tried to get on C= testing program, ARRGH all the machines were gone! So after waiting a few months more I eventually gave up on C= delivering a unix in the time period when I need it(this year). Just last month I began to look at the 386 clone market as a possibility for my inexpensive unix box. After shopping arround I found what I consider to be a pretty good deal for about $4,000. A 25Mhz 386 with cache, 4Meg memory, 160Mbyte ESDI hard disk, super VGA card and NEC 3D monitor. This seems to compare favourably with an Amiga 2500UX or a 3000UX for that matter(cpu power, storage, graphics ...). Also the 386 line has several unix vendors, ISC for the bold, SCO for the rational, ESIX for those on a tight budget, AT&T for the loyal and INTEL for the converted and the list grows and grows. I then had to agonize over what hardware I could buy for my Amiga vs. the 386 box. I thought to myself, I could get a 25Mhz 68030, a flicker fixer, new monitor and a whopping SCSI disk for my amiga with all that money. But alas I would still not be able to run unix, which is what I really need. So a few weeks ago I ordered my new 386 box and then started wondering if I should sell my 2500. I currently use it every day, it runs 24 hrs a day as my mail and usenet node. I eventually came to the decision that it is rather an expesive toy to keep, and since my 386 box will do all the things I really need, I should probably sell it. Just about that time we heard from Unix Expo that C= are now jumping straight to system V.4, which makes me glad I ordered my 386 box! C= can't possibly have V.4 available by early next year, it'll probably be next summer(my guess, of course I thought they would have unix this summer). Still if I hang on to my 2500 I will eventually have another unix box, and a 680X0 variety as well, which brings me to some questions. If I hang onto my 2500 what hardware am I going to need to run Unix? 4 Meg?? 80 Meg hard disk?? Cartridge tape?? I need a cartridge tape for my 386 anyhow and wondered if I could get compatible hardware. Anyone know what cartridge tape is used in the 2500UX? Archive? Or what kind of interface drives it? 2090? SCSI or ST506? Will C= sysV.4 support both the st506 & SCSI of the 2090 simultaneously? i.e. if I buy a SCSI host adapter and disk for my 386 can I use the SCSI disk on the amiga using to 2090 and C= Unix5.4? If I want to do this sort of hardware swaping are there any limitations on the SCSI drive, other than physical size(1/2 hieght 5 1/4)? Will C= 5.4 boot from the SCSI? Can I partition my 40 Meg drive to boot either AmigaDOS or UNIX and then mount a large SCSI disk? If I keep my amiga I could turn it into a graphics workstation right now by adding an ethernet card, X windows and optionally a flicker fixer. BUT: Will the Ethernet card and flicker fixer card currently available work with C= Unix 5.4?
pselver@ssi3b1.zone1.com (Peter Selverstone) (11/22/89)
In article <168@ubbs-nh.MV.COM> gmd@ubbs-nh.MV.COM (George MacDonald) writes: [much deleted] > >If I keep my amiga I could turn it into a graphics workstation right now >by adding an ethernet card, X windows and optionally a flicker fixer. BUT: > > Will the Ethernet card and flicker fixer > card currently available work with C= Unix 5.4? With respect to the flicker fixer, the answer is yes. -- Peter Selverstone ...{mit-eddie,pyramid,datacube}!mirror!ssi3b1!pselver Spy Pond Systems pselver@ssi3b1.zone1.com Arlington, MA BIX:pselverstone PLINK:pselverst CIS:72527,2652