Buying UNIX for a clone

[James Deibele]

In article <1991Apr28.025344.27664 at virtech.uucp> cpcahil at virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes:
>jamesd at techbook.com (James Deibele) writes:
>
>>I've seen basically good things about Dell 4.0, and I wouldn't trust Microport
>>or UHC.  I just don't think they'll be around in a couple of years, and that's
>
>Sounds like marketing BS to me.  Statements like this, without a basis in
>facts are likely to result in lawsuits from the companies whose products you
>are not selling and chose to bash.

They know where to find me.  "Statements like this" are made on the basis of
what I've seen in this newsgroup, on other electronic networks, reports from
people I've talked to, and first-hand experience.  If you'd like to show me
something that indicates that I'm wrong, I'll change my tune.  But that's not 
what I've heard, read, or experienced.

>Yes, I know you made a postive comment about Dell, but they are not really
>competing in the general (i.e. non-dell hardware) unix reselling market.

Were I developing a product for resale in the UNIX market, I would grit my
teeth and use SCO.  To most of the market, "UNIX on a PC" is equivalent to
SCO.  They're the market leader, and you have to take account of that fact.
Were I to develop a product for internal use at my (theoretical) hundred
sites, I would again go with SCO.  They have the training and support at
many more locations than anyone else.  They have more products written for
them than anybody else.  Etc., etc.  (And I've just seen a compliment for
good SCO support.)

I keep hearing from Larry about the Interactive FFS and SCSI support, and 
they've pioneered some neat innovations.  And writing their 4.0 from the
ground up shows that they want to (at the very least) want to make their
own mistakes or (best case) have some genuinely better ideas on how to do
it.

It's probably harder for (relatively) big companies like SCO to provide 
good support and keep close contact with their customers.  I'm disappointed 
in ESIX for not shipping when they said they would.  Maybe they are having
problems with packaging, or maybe the problems with "packaging" are that 
they don't want to ship something that still has a few fatal bugs in it.
But they've been promising to ship in April for quite a while, and didn't
make it.

Bottom line: there's no solution perfect for everyone.  
--
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