[comp.sys.laptops] ?? - UNIX ON LAPTOPS - ??

stecz@hotwheel.dell.com (John Steczkowski) (04/12/90)

In article <1617@satsuki.japan.sun.com>, gaijin@ale.Japan.Sun.COM (John
Little - Nihon Sun Repair Depot) writes:
> 
> 
>    Does anyone out there use *nix on *any* make of laptop??
> 
Dell sells a 386sx laptop that runs UNIX.
We support Dell UNIX on it, which is based on ISC UNIX.

John Steczkowski
Dell Unix Customer Support  P#: (512) 343-3571
9505 Arboretum Blvd.	    !s: uunet!dell!hotwheel!stecz
Austin, Texas 78759	    @s: stecz@hotwheel.dell.com

gda@creare.creare.UUCP (Gray Abbott) (04/13/90)

The Zenith 386 Supersport is advertised as compatible with Xenix (which is
a pretty solid Unix these days).  Damark is selling these for $3000.  Does
anyone have any experience, good or bad, with them?  Is it an SX?

Also, has anyone tried out the new Grid 386SX machine?  It seems to
have a lot of nice features (built-in modem, low weight, long battery
time).  I talked to them and you can only get a 40 Mb drive, which
makes UNIX a little tight, but, hey, it's a laptop (or a "phonebook"
by some press accounts).  I also heard from someone that Grids are
built very well, but I'm not sure he wasn't looking at their 286
model, which, I believe, was somebody else's (Zenith?).

schnable@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (andrew.schnable) (04/13/90)

From article <1617@satsuki.japan.sun.com>, by gaijin@ale.Japan.Sun.COM (John Little - Nihon Sun Repair Depot):
> 
>    Does anyone out there use *nix on *any* make of laptop??
> 

I don't run UNIX on my T1000SE (isn't this the US version of the Dynabook?), 
but I do run MKS toolkit. MKS provides many UNIX utilities (including ksh 
and vi), and runs on top of DOS.  After compressing my favorite MKS binaries 
with LZEXE - I still have almost half of my 1.44M floppy left over.

Andy Schnable
schnable@cbnewsc.att.com

craig@unify.uucp (Craig Isaacs) (04/14/90)

In article <1617@satsuki.japan.sun.com> gaijin@ale.Japan.Sun.COM (John Little - Nihon Sun Repair Depot) writes:
>
>   I seem to recall seeing  an advertisment in a  U.S.  newspaper a  while
>   ago for a Toshiba  laptop running a  variant of Unix.   Here in  Japan,
>   Toshiba's "Dynabook" range seems to be limited to DOS.
>
>   Was I imagining this  or can someone confirm  and give details  (model,
>   version of *nix and general impressions)??
>
>   Does anyone out there use *nix on *any* make of laptop??
>
My company, Unify Corporation, uses T5100s and T5200s for demonstrating
our UNIX software (ACCELL and UNIFY).  Most of the machines use SCO XENIX
(off-the-shelf); however, Toshiba sells T/PIX (or is it TP/IX?) and the
Interactive UNIX works, too.  (I would bet that the other flavors, 
including ESIX, would work as well....)

My machine is set up as follows:

	T5200
	4 MB RAM
	100 MB HD
	Serial mouse
	No extra cards

	22 MB in the DOS partition
	78 MB in the XENIX partition

I tried to put both DOS and XENIX on a T5100 with only 40MB, but I 
found myself removing files daily in order to make room for everything.
(Personally, I look forward to the 200MB+ hard disks for these machines. 8)

Also, I read in a paper yesterday (sorry, I read approx. 12 mag/week, so
I do not remember which rag) that Bob Kavner (AT&T UNIX Head Honcho) is
talking about a very small, runtime UNIX for retail that would compete
directly with OS/2. (I think I created my own version when I had the
40 MB disk, because I removed 1/2 of the XENIX system files!)

General impressions: I love it!  I just wish that the DOS emulation
stuff under XENIX was faster so I could run them both at the same time...
For now, I will use XENIX because I like the 10+ virtual terminals
I automatically get.  Also, if there is any question about getting the
T5100 or the T5200, go for the 5200 - I can add more memory, there is
an extra serial port (I use one for a mouse and the other for comm), and
an *industry standard* slot.  (The 5100s is Toshiba proprietary :(  )


Good luck!


Craig


P.S.  Although possible, I certainly would not run *nix on anything
other less than a 386 at this point....

-- 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Craig Isaacs                                      internet: craig@unify.UUCP 
Unify Corporation                           ...!{csusac,pyramid}!unify!craig