rja@edison.GE.COM (rja) (03/29/88)
AT&T ported the Sys V.3.1 to the 80386 chip in conjunction with Intel and
others. The resulting product, with very slight differences, is sold by
Microport, Interactive Systems, Belltech, and is the basis for the UN*X on
the AT&T 6386 series of '386 DOS/UN*X PCs. The main differences between the
versions are packaging which programs in which "product" and in the device
driver support and availability. For now XENIX is not entirely Sys V.3
compatible, but the AT&T/Microsoft agreement will mean that later versions
of XENIX will be binary compatible with these other products and will be
Sys V.3.1 compatible. If one wants cheap UN*X, pick a reasonably compatible
clone and buy the software from one of the folks above. It's probably
good to talk with the software supplier about which clones are known to work
and not work..... I use an AT&T 6300+ (AT clone) with DOS/UN*X merged and
am very happy. It runs all my DOS software and real Sys V also. The
Microport '286 UN*X is from the same port and is binary compatible with
what I use. '286 Xenix isn't compatible with me, 'don't know about the other
folks....
I hope that this helps
rja@edison.GE.COM or if you must, ...uunet!virginia!edison!rja