Coherent
Rob Springall
springal at hsi.UUCP
Sat May 5 04:25:04 AEST 1990
In article <1990May4.003555.25539 at dasys1.uucp> parsnips at dasys1.uucp (David Parsons) writes:
>BYTE magazine for May, 1990 had an advertisment for a 'virtual clone' of UNIX
>for $99.95.
>
>Anybody have any experience with this product? (or any good rumors??) It's
>from Mark Williams, I believe a respected name in the field. I'm VERY tempted.
I got too tempted and I picked up the phone and ordered a copy. It will
be shipped in two to three weeks.
Here are some of the details from their ad and the sales rep I spoke with:
- Complete C compiler
- Source code compatible with other *ix's (NOT object code compatible)
- Includes Yacc, Lex and Awk
- Includes UUCP, Mail and Usenet (news) progs
- Supports Trailblazers
- Can access DOS disks
- Comes on five (5) diskettes (either 5.25" or 3.5")
- 10 meg suggested disk space
- Can run in a minimum of 640K
- 64K kernel size
- 60-day money-back guarantee
Things I don't know:
- Whether or not (as according to rumor) the C compiler only does
8086 code and the small memory model
- If the C compiler can be used to compile DOS .EXE's (like SCO Xenix)
- If there are plans to include a DOS compatibility box. As of now,
it will "access" DOS disks.
- What shells it comes with (outside of the Bourne shell). I would
like the C shell and the Korn shell would be nice.
- Whether that "suggested" 10 meg of disk space holds a full system
or just a stripped version.
- The amount of support for modems other than Trailblazers (if I had
to wait for a $99 Unix, you can see how I'm not on a Trailblazer
budget).
- What kind of add-ons are planned.
- Whether or not the user manual will be enough for someone who has
never admin'ed a site before (me).
Address & Phone Number:
Mark Williams Company
601 N. Skokie Highway
Lake Bluff, IL 60044
(800) MARK-WMS (627-5967)
(708) 689-2300
The $99.95 price only lasts until July 31. For the small amount of change
that they wanted, I figured it was worth a shot. My biggest problem I
cleaning off enough of my hard drive (60 meg) for Coherent and my favorite
Unix code to fit.
--
Rob Springall springal at hsi.com
3M Health Information Systems ...!{uunet, yale}!hsi!springal
New Haven, CT
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