hardware requirements

[Kenneth J. Hendrickson]

How do I find out what versions of Unix support what kinds of hardware,
and require what kinds of hardware?  I want unix, but I'd like to be
able to upgrade slowly - using as much existing hardware as possible.

Disk controllers?  Video?  VGA?  1024x768?  800x600?  Hercules?
Page-white/greyscale?  Microsoft 2-button mouse?  Tape drives?
Printers?  Co-processor?

What kind of performance can you get with VGA 800x600 & X?  1024x768?
I'd like a couple of windows sized 60x80.  Is this possible?  Does X
run a lot better with a co-processor?  Can I get by with a Microsoft
2-button mouse, at least for a short time?

How much disk space is required/recommended for various versions of
Unix?  How much does the system itself require?  How much should be
allocated for swap space?  How much memory is required/recommended?

I am willing to totally give up DOS.  However, I understand that there
are things like Merge and/or VP/ix; how well do they work?  What DOS
programs can be used with these?  How doslike are these DOS shells?

I notice that all the PC benchmarks seem to be 16 bits only.  You can
see that the performance is directly related to clock speed for all
machines above a '286 (with better performance with a cache).  Do any of
the Unixes out there directly support the 32-bit '386?  (What my
question really is is "will I get significantly better performance from
a 386-dx than a 386-sx, if the clock speeds are similar?")  Should I buy
a 386-dx?

I will probably be the only user of the system.  However, getting the
2-user system seems scary.  What do you give up?  Is the kernel
crippled?  What is to prevent one from just adding to /etc/passwd?

Why should I get V.4?  V.3 seems to be a lot cheaper now.  Aside from
loosing 256 character filenames, and sockets, what else will I loose?
How much should I fear that V.4 will be full of bugs from any vendor,
while V.3 may be relatively debugged?

-- 
  favourite oxymorons:  student athlete, honest politician, civil war
Ken Hendrickson N8DGN/6       kjh at usc.edu      ...!uunet!usc!pollux!kjh