Binary Compatibility

[Jim Gottlieb]

I was speaking to Wordperfect Corporation the other day about upcoming
releases of their product for '386-based Unix.  Like everybody else, I
must face the ISC vs. SCO dilemma for our new office-automation system
we plan to install next year.  We currently use 386/ix for our
development system, but I am giving SCO a look because of Open Desktop
and because it seems that more software and hardware specifically lists
SCO as a system that it runs on (though often it says "SCO Xenix").

Back to Wordperfect... They told me that their first release of 5.0 for
Unix will be for SCO, and they are unsure of when a port will be made
to 386/ix.

What I wonder is:  Are they that different that software must be
separately compiled for SCO, ISC, AT&T, ESIX...?  If so, this strikes me
as awfully stupid.  How can we ever hope to persuade most of the major
software companies to support Unix under this scenario.  Does this mean
that I can't use SCO's software (or software written for SCO Unix)
under 386/ix?  I guess if it is written for "Xenix" I can use it under
SVR2's Xenix compatibility.

One last question is, for products like Wordperfect, what are the
advantages (if any) of buying the native Unix version versus buying the
MS-DOS version and running it under vp/ix or Merge?

Any guidance would be appreciated.  Thank you...
-- 
                              Jim Gottlieb
  E-Mail: <jimmy at denwa.uucp> or <jimmy at pic.ucla.edu> or <attmail!denwa!jimmy>
         V-Mail: (213) 551-7702  Fax: 478-3060  The-Real-Me: 824-5454