Is this a reasonable platform for SCO Unix?

[Dick Dunn]

chas at stax.uchicago.edu (Charles Blair) writes:

> I've just installed SCO Unix on a 16 MHz AST Bravo 386/SX, Paradise
> VGA Plus card, Princeton Max 15 monitor. The installation went well,
> and Open Desktop looks like it might be something I could put in front
> of our users (the configuration above is standard for them), but
> performance is very slow.

The SX ought to be enough for UNIX itself, but the ODT layer really wants
more horsepower than that.  Still, CPU may not be your major limitation at
this point...

> Admittedly, the machine has only 4 MB memory (we'll install more, but
> the dealer said 4 MB was sufficient if we didn't push it)...

Unless SCO has changed it recently, they were recommending a minimum of 6
Mb for ODT, and I'd say you really want 8.  At 4 Mb you're likely to be
thrashing badly.  (This isn't all due to ODT, nor specific to SCO--X is
the major hog.)

> Is the 386/SX architecture just sub-optimal for Unix?...

No.  The SX is fine for UNIX, but I feel it's not enough power for UNIX+X.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd at ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...While you were reading this, Motif grew by another kilobyte.