4.2 on 8600 (repeat)

[der Mouse]

> Ultrix-32 runs on the 8600. It runs like the
> proverbial "bat out of ...". Contact your DEC salesperson for further
> information.
(do I recall something about advertising being verboten?)
>							Ricky Palmer
>							DEC - Ultrix Group
>							rsp at decvax

     I wasn't  able to find the original article for  this, but from the
subject  line, I assume someone  asked  whether  4.2  ran  on the  8600.
ULTRIX IS NOT 4.2.  IF THEY ASK FOR 4.2,  DON'T ASSUME A CLOSE LOOKALIKE
WILL DO!!  Functionally, from the user level, it's very close,  granted.
BUT....  When  we had a uVAXII here  for  evaluation it had  Ultrix, and
when I wanted to put  in the  /dev/std{in,out,err}  driver and  the load
average  syscall  and  the other  kernel  hacks, guess what I found?  No
kernel  source!  UNIX source comes with it  (for universities).   Ultrix
source costs an obscene amount (we looked  into  getting it).   And UNIX
without  source is pretty pointless (for us; for example, we  had a grad
student here whose thesis  work  would  have been  completely impossible
without  the  kernel  source).   Guess what  we'll  be  doing  with  our
microvaxen!  Right, running 4.3 (if they have it by that time) or moving
4.2 (otherwise).  With UNIX  source, when you find a  bug,  you fix  it.
The  fix is available within  a few  hours, or days for the  tough ones.
With a vendor system like Ultrix, you send in an SPR and hope they deign
to pay attention to it.   Even  when they  do, you're lucky  if  it gets
back, with or without a fix, within a month.

     Sorry for such a long and heated posting, but this sort of attitude
"whaddya  want  4.2 for when you  can have Ultrix for 1000% more" really
gets to me.
-- 
					der Mouse

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