Xenix *is* Unix (WAS Re: ^3 What ....... Dell UNIX V.4)

[Ronald S H Khoo]

I don't disagree with richard at pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) when he writes stuff
like:

> SCO has, so far, promised NOT to go with V.4 -- buzzing about in their own
> separate reality.

But statements like:

> No way will I go with Xenix.  I need real Unix.

are not helpful.  Xenix *is* a real Unix, in many ways more real than
most System V releases prior to 3.2.  At least the V7 stuff didn't get
taken out.  If you mean that it isn't a real System V from the internals
point of view, sure, that's true, but that's a very different thing
from saying that Xenix isn't a real Unix.  And SCO's current Xenix will
run your SVR3.2 binaries too.  I can't see how an application user is
going to tell the difference.

SCO Unix, on the other hand is a different kettle of fish altogether.
That *isn't* Unix as far as any program system distributed in source
is concerned, because they've completely changed the semantics of
just about everything so much (because of their "security" <barf>
"enhancements") so it might be fair to call SCO Unix "Not a real Unix".

> And I very much want to go with V.4 when it's stable.

This is probably a good reason not to go with SCO, but in no way
changes the fact that Xenix *is* real Unix.  If by "a real unix"
you really mean "I need to be able to use drivers written for
<specific flavour of Unix>" then please say that.  Or whatever
aspect of Xenix does not fit your requirements.

But perhaps I should have mailed this.  Too late.  Maybe we could continue
by e-mail?

-- 
ronald at robobar.co.uk +44 81 991 1142 (O) +44 71 229 7741 (H)