SCO UNIX <<< REPLACES >>> proprietary VMS on new DEC product line

[A J Annala]

chip at chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) writes:
>>cy5 at cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Conway Yee) writes:
>>If SCO Unix is just so difficult to deal with, why
>>is it so popular?  What would be a suitable replacement?
>
>VMS.
>

Chip -- You actually have this completely backwards.  According to DEC's
advertisement in Computer Reseller News (December 10, 1990, pp. 59, 61)
the new DEC 433MP System (1 to 6 coupled i486 CPU's, 64 MB global shared
memory, 64 MB/s system bus, 1.2 GB internal hard disk) will not run any
variety of VMS (or even ULTRIX) -- INSTEAD IT WILL RUN SCO UNIX!!!

As far as SCO UNIX SYSTEM V/386 3.2.0 being difficult to deal with, you
might consider my experience with this system.  I am a biologist -- not
a system programmer.  I have a generic 33 MHz cached 80386/80387 system
with 8 MB main memory, 676+ MB ESDI hard disk drive, and 150 MB DC600XLP
cartridge tape drive.  The instructions for installing the base system,
the development system, and tcp/ip were so complete and detailed that I
had absolutely no problem installing the software products from scratch.
The only minor problem encountered was difficulty creating an emergency
boot floppy -- a problem quickly solved by SCO's telephone support line.
I subsequently obtained and compiled gcc and emacs without incident.  I
am in the process of installing SUN OS 4.0.3 developed image processing
code on this machine.  I never relaxed the C2 restrictions.  I have not
encountered any problem from the presence of the C2 enhancement.

Why is SCO UNIX so popular?  The software is mature, well documented, and
well supported.  SCO does not appear to release software products until
they are well tested.  In short, from my perspective, SCO UNIX performs 
as expected and does not interfere with work on my projects.  In the long
run, as my work becomes increasingly computation intensive, SCO UNIX will
support automatic division of my tasks among several closely coupled cpu's
on a low cost platform.  Can any other UNIX system accomplish these tasks?

Frankly, if anyone out there in USENET land is terribly unhappy with their
SCO UNIX System V/386 System, I would be very happy to make an appropriate
arrangement to acknowledge the value of your donation to the University of
Southern California.  Such an acknowledgement could reduce your individual
or corporate tax liability at year end.  In other words, if you don't want
your copy of SCO UNIX (or any layered products -- e.g. tcp/ip development
system, XSight, ODT), please feel free to donate it to my school where it
will be put to very good use.

Thanks, AJ Annala

Alexander-James Annala
HEDCO Neuroscience Bldg., Rm. 534
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520