What OS should we use? What hardware? 286/386... (*LONG*)

[Barnacle Wes]

In article <10022 at steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>, davidsen at steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) writes:
In article <300 at icus.UUCP> lenny at icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
} [...]
}o    Is Microport UNIX System V/386 the answer?  Do they have drivers that will
}     support 3rd party serial port boards (4-6 ports using the RJ-45 modular
}     scheme?)    

I've been using MicroPort V/AT (the 286 version) for about 1.5 years
now.  I have had a fairly good experience with MicroPort, and I firmly
believe they are working on their bug list as quickly as they can.
Most of the actual bugs I have run into in V/AT (as opposed to my own
stupid mistakes :-) seem to be bugs that are on the Ringy-Ding Tel &
Tel's System V Release 2 bug list, which I happened to get a look at
this weekend.  The big exception is uPort's malloc(3X) library, which
is *completely* brain-dead.  Ah well.

}o    Is Interactive's 386/ix the answer?   Do they have drivers...?

I haven't had a chance to use 386/ix yet, but it seems like a
*completely* cut-rate system.  I'll try to get comments out of a
friend who uses it a work (porting comm. software to various Unix
systems - hard work).  I do know he's muttered about some cretinisms
in the console and serial port device drivers.

}o    Is SCO Xenix the answer?  Will be have compatibility between UNIX-and-
}     Xenix? :-)   Do they have drivers...?

Great stuff, but expensive.  As someone once told me, the MicroPort
system you CAN afford is much better than the Xenix system you CAN'T
afford. :-(

}o    What hardware is suggested?   386 box, tape units, port boards, vendors?

I have had a very good experience with my Sperry PC/IT.  Unisys is
still selling the Micro/IT (same board, smaller box), and is on the
verge of releasing their 386 PC.  They have excellent service, and
like IBM and DEC, aren't likely to go out of business soon.  I
wondered what the merger would do to their service centers.  After the
confusion sorted out, it got *better*.  I'd say it went from an 8 to a
9 - the only better I've seen is Xerox Americare service.

DISCLAIMER:  My brother works for Unisys, but not in their PC division
- he works in the division responsible for system software on their
OEM'd Unix boxes (heh heh).  If you really want the ultimate in "Intel
Unix", buy one of the Sequent computers OEM'd by Unisys!

}o    Can we support 80286 machines (IBM AT's) running Microport UNIX System V
}     with the 386 machine, if we can compile with the 286 instruction set?
}     Is this possible?  Or do we need a IBM AT/286 machine?

With MicroPort, you can run the 286 compiler on the 386 system.  I saw
a message yesterday outlining how to do it; it seemed pretty
reasonable.  I would think the link times would be much faster on the
386 system, that's one reason for NOT running your 286 developement on
a 286! :-)

	Wes Peters
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