pandora's box

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!MILLER at MIT-AI]

From: Mark L Miller <MILLER at MIT-AI>
In asking folks about vms versus unix, I have seen very strong opinions
by very knowledgeable people on both sides.  I have never seen so little
consensus among the group of people whose opinions I normally trust.

We are about to get a VAX.  We want to run LISP (whatever flavor is
going to be widely adopted and well-supported).  A lot of the usage
will be for text editing (as close to ITS Emacs as possible), document
preparation (as close to R as possible), and electronic mail (as close
to BABYL as possible).

Which OS should we run, ignoring the small matter of $43,300 for System III
sources plus Berkeley stuff (we are a private company) if we choose unix?

Thanks, Mark
ps. If the moderator feels th