some questions

[D. J. Walker-Morgan]

cazabon at hercules (Charles Cazabon (186-003-526)) writes:

>In article <1991Jun10.212147.19177 at meteor.wisc.edu> foley at meteor.wisc.edu writes:

>:I am using a bunch of Unix workstations at my office (Sun Sparcstations,
>:etc.) and I would like to get something like this for my own personal
>:use at home.  I have heard that the Amiga 3000 is a pretty good computer
>:and that it can run a flavor of Unix and X11.

>Yes, you can run Unix System V, Release 4, X Windows, OpenLook, and lots
>of other goodies on a 3000UX.  Byte Magazine called the 3000UX "the best
>implementation of Unix SVR4 available" and said it "significantly outperformed
>NexT and Macintosh computers running" their flavours of Unix.  And there are
>cheaper, as well!

The Byte review, after my experiences with the A3000Ux has a hollow ring...
The SVR4 is *NOT* as well put together as other SVR4's, the X11 seems to
be based on AT&T's distribution and is X11R3... and for the money you pay
for the basic machine here in the UK, you can acquire higher specification
NeXTs, Macs, 486's and some SPARC systems. Basically, that Byte review
was well, rubbish. The A3000UX has to be bought with a ULowell card (the
A2024 monitor I don't regard as an alternative) and monitor.


>:Is this really true?  Can someone buy an Amiga with Unix and X11 already
>:installed?  How much would something like that cost - with the appropriate
>:hardware setup?  How well does something like this work?  What kind of
>:hardware is involved?  What version of X11 is it?  What kind of window
>:manager does the X11 server use?  Can you get Motif for the Amiga?
>:Etc...?

Goodness knows. The A3000Ux I had was a base configuration with 8Mb of
memory and no video card. I had a price from Commodore of 5000 UK pounds.
I coughed and spluttered and looked up SVR4 on 386/486's (Cheaper) and 
NeXT's (nicer for many folks, and at now you can get Motif 1.1 and X11R4 for
it) and then put the A3000Ux way down my shopping list...

The window manager supplied is olwm (with olwsm (session manager) and 
olfm (file manager))... With 2d OpenLook, they look dreadful, and with the
Amiga video hardware, they fill the screen rapidly. It's X11R3 by the way.

>:Any information about Amiga Unix/X11 would be most appreciated.
>:
>Simply the smartest choice for a Unix workstation for the money.
You must use different money.... There's plenty of better Unix workstations
at plenty better prices...

That said, it is somehow what I expected to come from Commodore as their
Unix box. Previous incarnations of Amix have appeared to be more "matched"
to the machine, but that work seems to have been discarded....

I'm waiting for version 2.0 of Commodore's SVR4 to see if they fix it
up a bit better.... I found it very slow, even to the point of embaressing...
(I don't expect to have to go downstairs for a cup of coffee while
waiting for an Xterm to come up)....

>--Chuck Cazabon, cazabon at hercules.cc.uregina.ca
>* My Opinions Are Not My Own...Feel Free To Plagiarize 

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  dj at micromuse.co.uk | "I've seen the future, I can't afford it" - ABC
                     | Voice +44-71-352-7774 Fax +44-71-351-7834 
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=========================================================================
  dj at micromuse.co.uk | "I've seen the future, I can't afford it" - ABC
                     | Voice +44-71-352-7774 Fax +44-71-351-7834