[comp.unix.i386] Getting Started with UNIX

positron@cosmic.berkeley.edu (Shigeki Misawa) (03/13/90)

Does anyone out in Netland have any advise to give in assembling an
inexpensive UNIX system? The application that I am going to be running
is Spice 3C. Since I have the source code, I need a C compiler that 
can generate code for a 387 and is capable of addressing more than 1 megabyte
of memory (I am assuming that this latter requirement is already satisfied
by any C compiler running under UNIX).

The specific information that I am interested in are :

1) What versions of Unix are out there? (This is of interest since the
	Spice code that I have was designed for 4.2 or 4.3 BSD.)

2) Is System V release 4 available and how compatible is it with 
	4.3 BSD?

3) What commercial packages are out there ? I have heard of Esix, and SCO
	but don't know anything about them.

4) Who sells this stuff and how muchis it going to set me back ?

5) What other software questions should I be asking?

6) Where can I go to get more Information ? (I have read Unix world
	Unix review, Personal Workstation Mag, Byte, Info world
	PCWEEK, etc but these are essentially worthless)

7) Being a relatively inexperienced unix user, how long will it
	take for me to figure this all out ?

On a hardware side, I have the following questions :

1) What is the minimum hardware configuration that I am going to need?
	Specifically, I currently use about 40Meg of disk space on my
	PC AT clone for applications programs. How much disk
	space am I going to need if I intend to have a Dos partition
	of about 40 MEG and at least 10 or 20 Meg available for
	applications program under unix? (I guess this translates into
	how much disk space does unix itself need)

2) How fast a box am I going to need to get the equivalent performance
	of a 286 box at 10 Mhz running MS DOS ?

3) How fast does the hard disk have to be ?

4) What type oc controller is necessary (SCSI, ESDI, MFM, RLL) ?

5) How much main memory do I need to run a task that uses at least
	1.5 to 2 meg of memory ? ( or if the available unixes 
	support virtual memory, how big does core have to be in
	order to run a program that takes up at least 1 meg of space
	under MS DOS without slowing significantly do to constant
	paging ?

6) How sensitive to mother board, display board and disk controller
	board brands are the commercially available UNIXes.

7) What are the acceptable brands of boards and controllers etc ?

8) What other questions should I be asking ?

Finally, are there any other hardware platforms that I should be 
looking at , i.e. Amiga, Apple Sun, Next etc?

If anyone has any advise they would like to give me please respond
via email (unless the answers to these questions may be of
interest to others banging there heads on the 640K barrier.)

Thanks in Advance
-- 
Shigeki Misawa -> Physics grad student