Unbundling - we all do it, so let's stop complaining

[John C. Rossmann]

In article <388 at uport.UUCP> plocher at uport.UUCP (John Plocher) writes:
><I do not intend this to become a shouting match - This is the last I will
>say in this conversation on the net - email works OK too, Dimitri>
>
>+---- In article <249 at belltec.UUCP> Dimitri Rotow writes:
>| For starters this is dumb because we simply publish the operating system
>| that Intel and AT&T create.  It's not "Bell Tech" anything, it's Intel/AT&T

I'd just like to make a few comments as a user/owner of both Bell Tech V/386
and uPort V/AT.

1) Re: the 'roff's: As has been pointed out before, Documenter's Workbench
   aka "the 'roff's etc.", is no longer a part of "standard UNIX". Bitch at
   AT&T for that one.
2) I'm running Bell Tech V/386; it seems to be a solid product, and it hasn't
   given us any problems here yet. Why did we buy it and not uPort V/386? Well,
   for the whole ball of wax, including going out and buying the rest of the
   manuals in the Prentice-Hall standard V/386 editions, Bell Tech V/386 cost
   us somewhere in the neighborhood of $635 (unlimitied license, streams, nfs,
   etc., and DWB). I believe (and don't flame TOO hard if I'm off here :-))
   uPort V/386 would run about $1300 for the same thing (the uPort would
   include DWB docs - but you can order them from uPort! :-)). To John
   Plocher: I just can't see $650+ in added value in your product versus
   Bell Tech's. IMHO, of course.
3) Deficiencies in Bell Tech's UNIX:
   a) The EXACT configuration of your hard drive, including sectors/track,
      must be in the ROM BIOS table. 
   b) Some of the Bell Tech drivers. Yes, you must have a Bell Tech tape
      controller to use their driver. Under uPort V/AT, the Bell Tech
      controller works just fine with the stock uPort Everex drivers; yet
      the stock Everex controller will not work with the Bell Tech V/386
      drivers. To Dimitri Rotow (and this is from a MOSTLY satisfied
      customer): Why do you do this? Could it be because the tape controller
      and drive from Bell Tech is about $300-$400 (again, figures are "ball
      park") above the street price for the SAME hardware (except the con-
      troller ROM) from Everex? Mr. Rotow, this is NOT in line with Bell
      Tech's avowed goal of "passing DOS world economies of scale along to
      the UNIX customer" (a very free paraphrase of Bell Tech sales
      literature). Why not sell the hardware at a price closer to the
      generic? Do I sound a bit upset? Yes, I think that tying your driver
      to your hardware in this fashion is not in the best interests of
      your customers or your own business.
   c) There are a few utilities and programs that are supposed to be a part
      of the standard AT&T release that were not included with Bell Tech
      V/386: 1) crypt. Since I am a domestic customer this should be there.
      2) the graphics subsystem that is supposed to reside in /usr/bin/graf.
      These programs are listed in the System V/386 manuals, but they were
      not in the V/386 we received from Bell Tech. (I don't care if they
      don't support the generic hardware -- they still should be there).
      These two items are referred to by AT&T in the V/386 manuals as
      "Security Administration Utilities" and "Graphics Utilities". They
      are both a part of the "standard" V/386 release, according to the
      manuals. I can't find them on my system. If this is truly "complete",
      they should be there. PLEASE NOTE: I'VE BEEN MEANING TO CALL BELL
      TECH ABOUT THIS. I HAVEN'T YET. THEY MAY HAVE AN EXPLANATION, AND
      THEY MAY SHIP ME THE STUFF WHEN I CALL. (But it should be there
      already.)
4) Regarding our experiences with uPort V/AT (with allusions to Bell
   Tech V/386): We are now running uPort V/AT, release 2.3 on our 286
   box. It's the FIRST uPort release that has allowed fairly reliable
   access to the DOS partition on the hard drive. BUT the DOS partition
   access works ONLY if your drive is in the ROM table. I've tried with
   both a drive in the table and a drive not in the table. uPort's V/AT
   (i.e. UNIX) works even if your drive isn't in the table, just don't
   try to access the DOS partition or to type "DOS" at the boot prompt
   unless your drive is in the table. Note that this is on a Sperry PC-IT,
   but that shouldn't make a difference. In the area of updates, uPort has
   never shipped us an update unless we called and asked for it, even
   though we have the update service.
5) Tape drivers and uPort V/386: For John Plocher: Why didn't you guys
   stick to generic globals, etc., so we could buy your drivers for use
   with Bell Tech's OS? You chided Dimitri for putting an artificial ROM
   check to limit his drivers -- uPort could have easily taken precautions
   to make their drivers work with the generic port. (If we don't buy your
   OS, we could make you rich buying your drivers! :-)). It seems to me that
   you and Dimitri are the "pot and kettle" in this tape drive/driver arena.

I guess I've gotten a bit carried away, but I've been thinking about writing 
this article for about 2 weeks. I'll close with a brief summary:

uPort V/386 is just too expensive in comparison with Bell Tech V/386. That's
the bottom line, or so it seems to me.

Bell Tech V/386 is just a bit flawed, as so many have been pointing out,
but it's the best value around.

Again, all this is IMHO. And I'd like to thank both Dimitri Rotow and
John Plocher for their presence here and their responses.

John Rossmann		(uucp: uunet!synsys!john)	(CIS: 70701,3125)