Mixed DOS/UNIX environment on '386

[David_J_Buerger at cup.portal.com]

I recently upgraded my '286 AT to a '386.  I installed a Mylex 20 MHz, 4
MB board, a Miniscribe 6128 RLL drive (110 mb formatted), and an Adaptec
2372 RLL controller.  After some initial hassles, everything now works
fine.

My operating system is PC DOS 3.1; I use DESQview with QEMM/386 to multitask
applications.  I'm disappointed in the speed of the multitasking, but
DESQview does provide reliable performance.  It is especially reliable
when I maintain multiple communications sessions either through two serial
ports, or a serial port and a 3COM ethernet card.  Another benefit of
DESQview is that programs don't need to be customized as they must to be
multitasked cleanly under Windows/386.  I also hear that W/386 has
problems handling simultaneous communications sessions over two serial
ports.

Two big DESQview drawbacks are speed and available memory.  Since I 
have an EGA monitor, the most active memory I can have in a window is
about 530K.  This is inadequate to run applications such as LaTeX, 
TeX, or Preview which require more memory.

I therefore have decided that I probably need do adopt a mixed UNIX/MS-DOS
operating system to gain multitasking speed and efficiency, plus keep my
DOS applications.  It is especially critical that I maintain DOS file
compatibility, because I maintain the PC-based TeX distribution for our
campus.  I must be able to use DOS backup from my machine and have non-
UNIX users be able to restore these files to their MS-DOS machines.

I've received product info for Locus Merge 386.  It sounds like the
product I've been looking for.  I've also seen literature for similar
products from SCO (Xenix with VP/ix) and Microport.  Can anyone comment 
on their reliability?  Do they perform as advertised?  They seem like 
a good idea, but I'm skeptical about reliability and performance.

David J. Buerger
Santa Clara University
dbuerger at scu.bitnet