Microport S/386 and Appropriate Hardware

[Burt Janz]

Hello, world!   |-)

I've been watching the net for some time now, and I've seen the complaints
about Microport's 386 UNIX, and about miscellaneous hardware combinations,
and some general commentary.  I shot my mouth off before, and got shot back
at.  I must be a glutton for punishment... 'cuz

it's my turn, again.  |-)  |-)

This is actually a very pleasant story.  Grab some coffee, and relax.
It's also a bit long... sorry about that...

In April, I purchased a 386 system from Rose Hill Systems.  They are in
Scotts Valley, just "down the road a'piece" from Microport.  The support
fellas at Microport had good things to say about Rose Hill machines, and Rose
Hill was VERY cooperative when I called them up.  A fella named Curt Meyer
spent LOTS of time with me describing the system, both in hardware and
in software terms.  I expressed some hesitation about the way they did some
things (like running an 80386-16 at 20mhz), and they did their best to
allay my concerns.

Well, I purchased their System 81 in the tower configuration.  I added a
Maxtor 1065 (drive type 12) and a Quantum Q540 (drive type 7) from my old
SV/AT system, brought over the 2mb BocaRam card (16-bit extended memory
running at 8mhz), and shoved in the Everex Stream-60 controller card.

Installation of S/386 went perfectly, first time.  (I had pre-formatted the
drives with Vfeature Deluxe which, by the way, didn't find any defects.)

So, I'm running happily along (although I can't run the serial ports over
4800 baud... and I'm STILL having problems with the lp driver!), and the
system DIES!!  My trusty dvm tells me that I have power, but it won't boot,
and the keyboard lights don't extinguish at POST.  The drives run up and
synchronize, but... no joy at boot time.

I called Rose Hill, was given an RMA, and shipped my system on Friday,
June 11.  I called on the 15th (I sent it 2 day overnight Emery), and was
told that the power supply was bad, and that they'd replace it, test the
system, and get it right back to me.

Today is the 17th.  I'm typing this on my Rose Hill Model 81 tower.

	NOW, THAT'S SERVICE!!!!!

(Oh, by the way, the system warrantee was 1 year, so there was no charge
on service.  And they paid shipping back to me.)

Many people out there are complaining about the state of their hardware,
that they have problems using two drives (I don't...), that they have
problems using the compiler (I don't...), that they see too many bad points
about Microport to keep using it (I don't...), and that they're going to
buy Xenix and run it (I won't...).  Having used Xenix, I'm MUCH happier with
Microport, both in the software itself (my needs REQUIRE SVID compatibility)
and in the support (they actually seem to know what's wrong, and how to patch
around it).  Having been intimately familiar with how DEC does its support,
I'm much happer with Microport.  Not having a SUN, I have nothing to compare
it to... but too many changes too quickly does not a stable release make!

I am also extremely satisfied with my choice of Rose Hill for my hardware.
Granted, things shouldn't break.  But they do, or some engineer would never
have invented the term MTBF.  Therefore, hardware service should play into
the purchase decision of any equipment.  I happen to feel that, as far as
Rose Hill is concerned, the price/performance ratio was fine.

If you are still looking for a system, consider Rose Hill.  If you are
still looking for UNIX, consider Microport.

If you are still unsatisfied, please... buy a source licence, and market
your OWN version of UNIX!!!!  |-)

Disclaimer:  The usual about not being employed by either Microport or
Rose Hill, and about just being a very satisfied customer of both.

PLEASE, if you want to flame, do it elsewhere.  I'm trying to give some
constructive commentary on an unfortunate circumstance.  Yes, I WAS down
for almost a week, but it could have been much longer, and much more
expensive!!!  

---------

Burt Janz
..decvax!bhjat!bhj