marz@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (martin.zam) (04/06/91)
If Coherent and Minix are not System V release 3, how far off are they? Can all/most/some applications be ported from System V with a simple recompile? If not, what's missing? For that matter, what if anything is gained? I'm wondering about buying one or both of these OS's. I would really like to hear from users of both System V release 3 and one of these more affordable alternatives. Will these OS's run on a 386 machine? What do I gain or lose here? BTW, Is System V release three available for the same hardware as Coherent and Minix from any vendor? Thanks in advance, Martin Zam (201)564-2554
wbeebe@bilver.uucp (Bill Beebe) (04/07/91)
In article <1991Apr5.225609.19814@cbfsb.att.com> marz@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (martin.zam) writes: >If Coherent and Minix are not System V release 3, how far off are they? >Can all/most/some applications be ported from System V with a simple >recompile? If not, what's missing? For that matter, what if anything >is gained? I'm wondering about buying one or both of these OS's. > >I would really like to hear from users of both System V release 3 and >one of these more affordable alternatives. > >Will these OS's run on a 386 machine? What do I gain or lose here? >BTW, Is System V release three available for the same hardware as Coherent >and Minix from any vendor? > I run Minix, which has always tried to be Release 7 compliant (the last "great" release before the split that lead to current System V and BSD). As for 386 extensions, they exist, and are supported in the comp.os.minix. You do _NOT_ get 386 support with the PH 1.5, although you do get 286 protected mode and virtual consoles ala SCO Xenix. Minix is a classical hacker's OS; it comes with full source, and can be modified and twisted to your heart's content. If you want System V and all the assurances and hand holding that go with it, then go buy it. Coherent gives you a shrink-wrap version of Unix that you can bring up and experiment with, while Minix allows you to go down into the internals of an excellent Version 7 implementation and actually learn something meaty and useful about operating systems. Make up your mind and pick the one that best fits your needs, and quit wishing for a Mercedes at VW bug prices.
mitchell@MDI.COM (Bill Mitchell) (04/07/91)
Just picking a small nit In article <1991Apr6.165841.7850@bilver.uucp> wbeebe@bilver.uucp (Bill Beebe) writes: >You do _NOT_ get 386 support with the PH 1.5, although you do get 286 >protected mode and virtual consoles ala SCO Xenix. Minix is a classical >hacker's OS; it comes with full source, and can be modified and twisted >to your heart's content. > PH 1.5 minix will run on a 386 as well as on a 86/88 or a 286. On a 286 or 386, you get protected mode operation (wild programs abort with a memory protection violation instead of doing writes where they should not). You do not get virtual consoles with PH 1.5 (At least I think not, I'm running 1.5.10 upgraded over the net, not 1.5 distributed by PH). As I recall, virtual console support is a nonstandard enhancement which appeared on the net after PH released 1.5. It's one of those modifications or twists (modified twists?) (twisted modifications?) which was made by a minix user who was able to add it because he had the source. So far as I know, it's not certain yet whether virtual console support will become a part of standard minix in future PH releases. Ditto for 386 support (another nonstandard enhancement which supports executables larger than 64k+64k. Minix, of course, also runs on 68000 machines, and has no 64k limit there. -- mitchell@mdi.com (Bill Mitchell)
nlane@well.sf.ca.us (Nathan D. Lane) (04/10/91)
I use both Esix System V release 3.2 and Coherent v3.1.0. In terms of actually using the system, I currently prefer Coherent. My version of Sys V does not include manual pages. My version of Sys V does, however, include X-windows, Motif, networking and other things - I will eventually exploit all this, but in 4 MB, it pages too much. I imagine that as soon as I get an upgrade, Sys V will be my choice, but Coherent will still be my UUCP front-end "protecting" the Sys V machine from attack. All in all, I really like coherent. Small model is a slight problem, but NOT a big one at this time (sorry, no X or TCP/IP, but for $99.00, what does it matter?)