ISC ?

[Larry Snyder]

The Saga of my dealings with ISC continues..

The beginning - My introduction to multitasking/multiuser operating systems
was using on OS called QNX last year.  QNX worked but lacked applications and
the file system was rather slow.  QNX also suffered from a poor compiler which
was pure K&R.  I was running a multiline (all high speed modems) Fidonet mail
hub feeding the midwestern US mail - with bundles averaging around 1.3 megs a
day and producing transfers of around 1650 cps on the lines with the new HST
modems - and 1450 cps on the PEP+ lines (all modems were using hardware flow
control and locked at 19,200).

I wanted to run a news site - and wanted an OS to make my machine shine
(25mhz '386).  After looking through Unix Today!, Unix Review and Unix
World - I decided on ISC - primarily due to the speed of the file system.
At the time (6 months ago) SCO wasn't producing their Unix product and I
wasn't interested in Xenix - since it wasn't Unix - so my first introduction
to ?NIX was with ISC.

ISC arrived in a rather large box - and contained LOTS of manuals and
disks.  I followed the installation procedure and everything was going well
so far.  After I got news up and running - I started running into problems
with high speed serial IO (this was before the X5 kernel configuration 
upgrade modification was released) - more specifically - bi-directional
communications.  I was disappointed.  I received some feedback from other
users experiencing the same problem and ISC support in Hollis didn't have
an answer for me.

<negative comments removed - since everyone has seen them in previous 
messages, and it is quite possible that some of the mistakes were due
to the fact that I had expected manuals of the same quality of many of
the DOS products which contained answers to my questions, and some of
my problems could have been due to my lack of experience with the ?NIX
operating system>

ISC wasn't working for me - so I called an ordered SCO Xenix 2.3.2.  I 
installed Xenix - and everything overall ran quite well.  I never needed
to call SCO for technical support - since the manuals were well written
and combined with the information here on usenet - all of my questions
were answered.  My Xenix news machine is running too well - and I am bored 
and miss the fast Unix file system (I also heard about how neat rn is as a 
news reader - and want to run rfmail which is a fidonet compatible package 
written for Unix system V).  The Xenix machine runs so well, that if I died 
the machine would keep running as long as the bills were paid.  I went on 
vacation and the machine rebooted, checked the file systems and was back 
on-line within a short period of time re-distributing news.  

This is December - and I have been reading about others who have positive
experiences with ISC 2.02 and the X5 mod.  I also have heard from others
for whom the X5 modification didn't do any good.  I guess I'm willing to
be brave - and am considering doing a complete backup of my machine - and
re-installing ISC 2.02 with the X5 mod (and my Hostess drivers).   I also
am interested in X-Windows now that I have an enhanced VGA graphics sub-
system.	 I talked with Brian at ISC and he has ageed to help me get ISC
back up and running.  What more could I ask?  Maybe I was un-fair to ISC
in my previous messages - or maybe I wasn't?  Hopefully the Hostess drivers
and/or X5 mod will work for for this site nstar..

Comments, suggestions, and/or flames to larry at nstar
-- 
Larry Snyder                     uucp:iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!larry