'386 Unix Wars

[John G. DeArmond]

>In article <2812 at cirrusl.UUCP> dhesi%cirrusl at oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
->          Everex has a fair implementation (except for one or two
->things that don't work at all) but the worst documentation I have seen
->for an operating system (based on the two manuals included with what I
->bought -- you can buy more manuals, which I suspect will be of the same
->miserable quality).

Plus Esix is a dog performance wise.  I benchmarked it against many other
machines for my last client's fairly large project.  Our benchmark 
performed typical transaction-styled database lookups and modifications.
A compaq DeskPro 33 mhz system running ISC 2.2 and a compaq supplied 300
meg disk permformed about 300 "transactions" per second.  The client's
Sequent (4 processor unit) did about 170.  An IBM Sh*tstation 6000/54 (I
think that's right, anyway, second from the top) would do about 310 when
it was not crashing.  This system (20 mhz clone board with fast SCSI
drives and ISC 2.0.2) does about 120.  A 25 mhz clone system with ESDI
drives did  exactly ONE transaction per second.  This is the same
performance we  observed from an NCR 200 (4 tps) and an NCR 400 (1 tps). 

What this tells me is that the Esix port is pure AT&T file system without
any performance enhancements at all.  The compaq was most impressive coupled
with the new release of ISC.

>->
>->For business purposes I recommend SCO.  Although I personally haven't
>With *GAG* C2 security from *cough* secureWare?

Yeah, SCO is pretty much all 'round bad.  Even though ISC has their stupid
little authorization-style copy protection, it is no where near as bad
as SCO's.  I think SCO is following in the footsteps that IBM laid with
the PC and is giving up the lead through sheer stupidity.

>->For good documentation and powerful features, you have no choice but to
>->try to find a BSD derivative (anything except Ultrix).  Right now I use

>no can do on a 386/AT unless you have a source license ($100,000)

Plus I don't know that I'd want to mess with BSD in a commercial environment.
Perhaps if someone like ISC took BSD and made a product from it by cleaning
it up and adding value, I'd be interested.  But after spending the past 
little while crawling through bezerklyware networking code, I'd not want
to risk my reputation on unadorned BSD.

Besides anyone who is complaining about documentation should really look
at ISC's 2.2 release docs.  All 62 lbs of them!  The installation and 
administration guide in particular is as good of Unix documentation
as I've seen.  Particularly the part on line printer management.  

True, there is no "This is Unix" style beginner's guide but I as an
experienced unix system admin and developer have found just about everything
I've wanted to know in the manuals.

I've advocated pinging ISC for their stupidity over things like the 
authorization manager (I can hardly wait for this thing to take a client's
system down.  I'll do everything I can to sic the lawyers on 'em.) and
their moronic support policy.  At the same time, I advocate giving them
credit where it is due.  Their performance and their documentation are
excellent.  Hey Interactive!  How about rediscovering the spirit that must
exist in the tech writing department and applying it to your support
policies.  And can the authorization manager and call it a bad wet dream.
Ok?  And stick the Korn shell in the distribution just for good measure.

>->
>->Also available, still in beta-test (though they call it a "production
>->release") is System V Release 4.  I would wait another year, but by

>at least a year

I hope never.  I hope that by the time we have to look at R4, commercial
Mach and/or commercial free BSDs will be available.  AT&T's new motto:

"Unix:  The product that we just couldn't kill - though we tried real hard."

------------------------------------
$finger AT&T

Logname: ATT                  In real life: The Phone and Cash Register Company

project - Kill Unix
plan - Issue Release 4, buy NCR.

-------------------------------------

John

-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC        | "Purveyors of speed to the Trade"  (tm)
Rapid Deployment System, Inc. |  Home of the Nidgets (tm)
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