SCO Xenix vs Microport

[Charles Faulhaber]

I would appreciate e-mail feedback on the issues described
below. If any responses having general interest are
received, I will summarize and post these.

THE PROBLEM: I traded my ATT-6300 (8086) for an ATT-6310
(80286). My SCO XENIX Sys V 2.0 does not run on the 6310.
SCO wants $300 for the upgrade (just the operating system).

THE CHOICES: Stick with MSDOS. Buy the SCO upgrade. Buy the
Microport AT package (about 470).

THE QUESTIONS: Can 8086 SCO XENIX be made to run on an AT
clone? How does Microport compare with SCO XENIX? I like
the SCO XENIX multi-screen capability; does Microport have
it? TROFF in the SCO package as about as useful as "teats
on a boar hog." Microport has DITROFF; does it work? How
close are the development tools under Microport to those
found in XENIX and UCB systems? Microport has a 286 bridge
to MSDOS. Does it work? Does SCO have anything similar
coming along? I have grown used to the Korn shell from the
MKS Toolkit. SCO does not have it. Does Microport?
How does support compare?  It has taken me six weeks to get
replacement disks from SCO.

WHAT I DO WITH THE SYSTEM: Software development (C,
assembler) for a database used here, at Berkeley, and
several other places. This runs under MSDOS, 2.9 BSD, 4.3
BSD, ULTRIX, etc. Text processing involving camera-ready
output.

Earl H. Kinmonth
History Department
University of California, Davis
916-752-1636/0776
cck at deneb.ucdavis.edu