SCO support for Xenix (or lack of).

[Mark J. DeFilippis]

In article <18150 at rpp386.cactus.org>, jfh at rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
> XENIX is very old and exists in a market which pretends to be heading
> towards increased standardization.  [ Which is why the OSF exists -
> to insure Yet Another Standard is created ... ]  Letting XENIX die
> really makes sense.  It isn't USG and it is BSD.  It's this strange
> middle of the road creature which refuses to behave like what we'd
> expect a "UNIX" thingy to behave like.

I just wanted to point out something here.  I think the fact that it was
a middle of the road thingy was a plus.  The fact that it kind of came
from version 7, but sometimes behaved like USG, had some BSD but not all,
and resembled SYSV.2 somewhat, has a cross of SYSV.3 in it, and is a subset
of SYSV.4 kept all of us who have to work with it on our toes.

Porting a piece of code for XENIX was like porting to all those, since
after the port to XENIX the port to anything else was simpler being that
you just partially ported to it through the XENIX port.  I have always
thought of it as a blessing.  If I only got to work in BSD4.X, I think
I would become partial and lazy, not to mention lose some skills.

With all the complaints I see about SCO's product cost, I think we should
keep in mind the levels of support they provide, the range and magnitude
of support.  Let us not forget how many of the updates were FREE to ALL
levels of customers.  Heck, I wish the upgrade to UNIX was cheaper, but that
is the least of my problems.  My problem is getting the drivers for the
tape unit, computone boards, etc.

So... Anyone know if drivers are available for SCO Unix for the Computone
Intelliport and advantage boards?  Arnet boards?  Yes, I could call the
company, but I thought I would cram all my thoughts into one message.

Also since I was aware that the Microport UNIX was cheaper then SCO XENIX,
why did the company have the problems thay had?  Anyone know what the
disposition of that company was/is?  If someone knows what the problem
was, the story so to speak, and it has not been rehashed 1x10^9 times
here when I was not paying attention, I would like to hear it...

-- 
Mark J. DeFilippis
SA @ Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530                   (516) 663-1170
UUCP:	 philabs!sbcs!bnlux0!adelphi!markd