mitchell@cadovax.UUCP (03/31/87)
I am interested in buying a 80386 AT class machine with about 2.5 meg of
memory and about 60 -> 85 meg hard disk so that a bussiness with five users
can use it to store and retrieve information and send messages around to each
other and also, eventually run DOS programs like Wordperfect and OMNIS3 (
billing, inventory, invoice processing, etc...).
My thought was to get the hardware and then get SCO Xenix so that the people
would be able to store information, send each other mail, talk to each other
on the "phone" or "talk" facility and then, at the end of the day, they could
print out all of the daily data stored in the plain text files under Xenix and
then boot up DOS and key the new invoices, inventory, billing into Omnis3 and
generate their reports and such.
This isnt the target scenario, but I thought that it *was* a way to get this
buissines going, multiuser, under Xenix, right now (cause they are dropping
all kinds of invoices and billing and such on the floor and they need auto
mation NOW!).
Then, when 386 Xenix comes out (when???), we could install that and they
could have Dos and Xenix running multiuser (which is the target scenario).
I have some questions:
When will the 386 Xenix come out?
What do you know about it?
What are it's new features?
How many users can it (and 286 xenix) support concurrently?
Will it *really* run Dos programs in a multiuser environment without a hitch?
Is the hardware that I mentioned sufficient?
Will the current Xenix be able to do "talk" or "phone", email and uucp
(logins over the phone too)?
Will Xenix (currently) run on a 386 (i dont see why not!)?
What will multiuser (5 users) be like under the current version of Xenix?
What sort of "multiport" card should I get for the 4 additional terminals?
How much disk space will the system (286 Xenix and later 386 Xenix) need?
Will I be able to dial into this system over a phone line (how hard is that
to set up)?
If I had the hardware now, which Xenix would I want to get?
-- Any experiences, advice, corrections with this type of multiuser
environment under Xenix that you wish to share with me are welcome!!!
Please respond to this via email (as well as news, if you wish).
Thanks,
Mitchell
--
Mitchell Lerner
# {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!mitchell
# cadovax!mitchell@ucla-locus.arpadavidsen@steinmetz.UUCP (04/02/87)
In article <1452@cadovax.UUCP> mitchell@cadovax.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) writes: >I am interested in buying a 80386 AT class machine with about 2.5 meg of >memory and about 60 -> 85 meg hard disk so that a bussiness with five users >can use it to store and retrieve information and send messages around to each >other and also, eventually run DOS programs like Wordperfect and OMNIS3 ( >billing, inventory, invoice processing, etc...). I have the PC Designs GV386. It can be ordered with 80MB disk and 4MB memory for ~$5k. Add a 4/8 port serial card an go. > >My thought was to get the hardware and then get SCO Xenix so that the people >would be able to store information, send each other mail, talk to each other >on the "phone" or "talk" facility and then, at the end of the day, they could >print out all of the daily data stored in the plain text files under Xenix and >then boot up DOS and key the new invoices, inventory, billing into Omnis3 and >generate their reports and such. > >This isnt the target scenario, but I thought that it *was* a way to get this >buissines going, multiuser, under Xenix, right now (cause they are dropping >all kinds of invoices and billing and such on the floor and they need auto >mation NOW!). > >Then, when 386 Xenix comes out (when???), we could install that and they >could have Dos and Xenix running multiuser (which is the target scenario). > > >I have some questions: > >When will the 386 Xenix come out? I am now told 3rd quarter, but Xenix/386 is being dropped in 1Q88 to allow Microsoft to bring out a real UNIX product based on V.3. Microport has their V.3 in beta, should ship 3Q87. > >What do you know about it? Saw both at UNIFORUM. There doesn't seem to be a hell of a lot of application software for either right now, but I would expect both to offer spreadsheet, database, and word processing by 3Q87. The Microport *seemed* a bit more robust. > >What are it's new features? Microport offers demand paged virtual memory. I saw nothing to indicate that Xenix will support this, although I assume that it will be a part of the UNIX release next year. > >How many users can it (and 286 xenix) support concurrently? I saw five CPU hogs running nicely under Microport, did not see a load test on Xenix/386. If you use serial boards with an interupt handler on the board, you should be able to run at least 16 in an office load application. The Microport version has drivers for this type of card and tape backup (you were planning on that, I hope). I didn't see these for Xenix, but they may be available. > >Will it *really* run Dos programs in a multiuser environment without a hitch? SCO did not have their DOS product running when I was there, but I saw it at the Interactive Systems booth. It seemed to work correctly for one process like 1-2-3, etc. Televideo and Microport were demonstrating up to four DOS processes running on terminals (Televideo has a *nice* PC style terminal which sends keycodes rather than ASCII). Microport showed piping the output of a UNIX command thru a DOS command and back thru a UNIX command. They also had 1-2-3 on one terminal, a BASIC program on another, another application in a window on the console, Flight Simulator in a window on the console, and 'vi' in a window on the console. All running smoothly and fast. > >Is the hardware that I mentioned sufficient? You'll love it. > >Will the current Xenix be able to do "talk" or "phone", email and uucp >(logins over the phone too)? Yes. One caveat: the uucp in Xenix/286 is **NOT** SysV. I quote page 2 of the uucp manual entry: "This version of 'uucp' is based on a version 7 implementation." The only problem I have ever had with this is getting a BREAK in L.sys login scripts. This feature seems to be implemented with nulls or something, and doesn't work calling into some machines. > >Will Xenix (currently) run on a 386 (i dont see why not!)? Yes, indeed! > >What will multiuser (5 users) be like under the current version of Xenix? More than adequate. > >What sort of "multiport" card should I get for the 4 additional terminals? See above. You want smarts on the card, or interupts will eat the CPU. > >How much disk space will the system (286 Xenix and later 386 Xenix) need? Xenix/286 with software development and text processing options takes 15-20MB. The rest may be used for user and application space. > >Will I be able to dial into this system over a phone line (how hard is that >to set up)? Dialing in is trivial. For dialing out you will have little trouble if you use a Hayes compatible modem (I like the MultiTeck 224E). All the documentation is there to write your own dialer(s) for anything. > >If I had the hardware now, which Xenix would I want to get? I have had Xenix/286 for over a year, and still like it reasonable well. I ordered Microport for my 386 because I wanted a standard SysV interface and compiler. There are more applications for Xenix, but you have a good choice of office software with either. Microport tech support *seems* to be better than SCO, but SCO was just putting in their "screening" process when I used it, and the person who was screening couldn't understand the questions and told me that uucp was "a UNIX feature, not XENIX". I did get answers, eventually. > >-- Any experiences, advice, corrections with this type of multiuser >environment under Xenix that you wish to share with me are welcome!!! The new release of Microport for 286 has a menu driven administration program which leads you by the cursor thru most common things like user create and delete, backup and restore, etc. Their manuals are easier for a casual user (in my opinion) but perhaps not as good for the UNIX heavy. Hope this helps, my mailer doesn't like your address. -- bill davidsen sixhub \ ihnp4!seismo!rochester!steinmetz -> crdos1!davidsen chinet / ARPA: davidsen%crdos1.uucp@ge-crd.ARPA (or davidsen@ge-crd.ARPA)