VAX UNIX advice needed

[840033@G.Pavlov]

In article <344 at mc0.UUCP>, mike at mc0.UUCP (mike tankenson) writes:
> ........... (we)  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?
> 
> So far, the systems in the running are:
 ( ... list, including Ultrix .... )
> 
> 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 have two uVaxes running Ultrix, with much 3rd party hardware.  Our level
  of Unix "expertise" is middling - certainly, no one at the caliber of many
  of the people who correspond on this newsgroup.

  Our experience with DEC's Ultrix software support has been abysmal.  We have
  yet to receive a proper/useful/correct answer to a query.  
  We also purchased the recently-released "VAX Fortran", since we have one 
  large home-grown stat package that can benefit from the superior performance;
  this also has lead us to use DEC's "jacket" routines (which provide inter-
  faces between "VAX Fortran" modules and modules written in f77, C, etc).
  We are currently working on work-arounds to work-arounds due to problems with
  both; DEC has been able to do little more than promise to check things out,
  admit problems, and ask us to submit SPR's.  The stat package we are convert-
  ing, by the way, runs under DEC fortran 77's under TOPS-20 and VMS.

  The documentation is sloppy.  We seem to have run into an inordinate number
  of instances of command parameters that don't exist, or exist but are not
  documented.  The backup material is apx. 1/2 Berkely/AT&T papers and 1/2
  DEC-produced.  The former, which is, of course, often included by vendors,
  is useful - but much of it is out of date from a day-to-day prectical stand-
  point.  The latter tends to be shallow.  Overall, there is very little 
  that provides an understanding about the interaction of Ultrix and the hard-
  ware (tho I have seen this in other vendors' documentation as well).

  Overall, I am satisfied with the hardware and DEC's support of it- which
  includes the third-party equipment.  But I am very unhappy with the
  software support.  If I were paranoid, I might come to the conclusion that
  ...................

        greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny