is xenix unix....

[rich at wlbreng1.UUCP]

In article <626 at brl-sem.ARPA>, ron at brl-sem.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) writes:
> 
> Anyhow, BELL TECHNOLOGIES, a company that sells PC disk drives and PC/AT
> clones, sells real system V for the PC/AT.  At one time they'd give away
> free system V with a disk drive purchase.  Their number is 1-800-FOR-UNIX
> (catchy, eh?).

The company that makes the System V for the BELL machine is:

	Microport Systems, Inc.
	4200 Scotts Valley Drive
	Scots Valley, CA 95066
	(408) 438-UNIX (California only)
	(800) PC2-UNIX (outside California)

And what gives Microport an edge over */ix from ISC and ESPECIALLY Xenix ?

a) Cost
	Runtime System
		(System V and over 180 utilities)	159.00
	Software Development System
		(Includes a 80286 SPECIFIC compiler)	169.00
	Text Preparation System
		(Nroff, Troff, Spell, Etc.)		169.00
	Complete System
		(All of the above together)		439.00
	Unlimited User Upgrade				169.00

	(This is not an error!! The whole system WITH manuals for $439.00)

b) Real System V

	Don't listen to SCO, Microsoft or any people claiming that
SCO V is REAL system V. If you do any kind of code development and
want TRUE code compatibility across System V machines, why bother with
a LOOK ALIKE ? Get REAL System V. And if you don't think that's an accurate
statement, compile your program using the terminfo library on Xenix.
SURPRISE!! And that's NOT low level code either.

c) SVID compatibility

	Are you REAL sick of adb'ing your code ? Microport uses the
standard COFF and delivers sdb with the system. This alone is worth
$439.00. Where else does SCO Xenix drop the ball ?

System Vism		SCO Xenix		Microport

COFF			no			yes
sdb			no			yes
f77			no			yes
SysV make		no			yes
ctrace			no			yes
cflow			yes			yes
termio			no			yes
profiler		no			yes
crash			no			yes
bdblk			no			yes
dcopy			no			yes
fuser			no			yes
fsdb			no			yes
ff			no			yes
volcopy			no			yes
finc,frec		no			yes
sar			no			yes
sadp			no			yes
diskusg			no			yes
di-troff		no			yes
pic			no			yes
mv macros		no			yes
shl			no			yes

d) Third Party Software

	There is a massive effort on the part of many of the large
third party vendors to port their product to Microport System V.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the possiblity of Microport installing
Xenix executable compatibility into the next release of their system
(V.3 for the 80386 due in July).


I do not make all of these claims based on vague second hand knowledge.
I use AT&T system V on Vaxen and 68K Boxes 40+ hours a week. I also
have SCO Xenix V on an IBM PC/AT. I have ported applications using
everything from ioctl() to reset_shell_mode(). The porting curve (or curse)
to Xenix is awesome. NEVER should there be a porting problem of this size
going from one System V to another (unless it's System V that you're
porting).  This leaves me with one conclusion: Xenix V is NOT System V.

Ok, I'm through waving Microports flag.
You may now flame the daylights out of me.
-- 
        Richard L. Pettit, Jr.
        Software Engineer
        Research and Development
        Eaton Inc., IMSD
        31717 La Tienda Dr.
        Box 5009 MS #208
        Westlake Village, CA 91359
        
        { voder,ihnp4,trwrb,scgvaxd,jplgodo }!wlbr!wlbreng1!rich