VAX UNIX advice needed

[mike tankenson]

Our section here at JPL have finally decided that VMS on VAXes are not the
way God planned it, and are in the middle of evaluating UNIX for our newly
purchased VAX 8600.  Would anbybody with experiences on a VAX running UNIX
please take the time to respond to this short list of questions?

Our 8600 will be used as a development machine, with lots of C users, maybe
some database applications, and heavy networking.  Currently, the rest of
our LAN consists of Suns, Masscomps, Vaxes, and IBM/ATs, all running TCP/IP.

So far, the systems in the running are:

1) BSD 4.3 (system license + source from Berkeley)
2) System 5
3) Ultrix
4) more/BSD from Mt. Xinu

In particular, what are the stengths and weaknesses of each?
If we decide on BSD 4.3, how do we ever get support (or are we supposed to
become UNIX gurus)?  Is Ultrix a decent version of UNIX?  Does it fully support
4.2 networking?  Why does Mt. Xinu have such a good reputation?  Should we go
with DEC (for their expertise with VAXes, supported products, enhanced UNIX)
or Mt. Xinu (for their UNIX expertise, etc.)?

We would be eternally grateful for any information (particularly from users
of these systems on other DEC machines).  Please respond directly to me.
Thanks...

--mike

Mike Tankenson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Uucp: {sdcrdcf,bellcore}!psivax!mc0!mike
Arpa: ...mc0!mike at cit-vax.ARPA
--
Mike Tankenson
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Uucp: {sdcrdcf,bellcore}!psivax!mc0!mike
Arpa: ...mc0!mike at cit-vax.ARPA