From: esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sys5.r4,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.linux.announce,news.answer,comp.answerss Subject: PC-clone UNIX Software Buyer's Guide Summary: A buyer's guide to UNIX versions for PC-clone hardware Followup-To: comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Archive-name: pc-unix/software Last-update: $Date: 1994/11/16 06:33:22 $ Supersedes: <1mNyMB#M8Cq89l95TspL02Q4l91QWtwq=esr@boojum.thyrsus.com> Version: 19.0 *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** I have ceased maintaining this FAQ. This version 19 will be my last release. By the time you read this, much of the contents will be out of date (especially pricing and current-version info; the compatibility tables should age better). The reason I am dropping this is that I run Linux now, and I no longer find the SVr4 market interesting or significant. If you do, and you want to take this over, email me -- I'll send you the master and my notes and contact list. The companion PC-Clone UNIX Hardware Buyer's Guide FAQ is still alive, now as a WWW resource at //www.ccil.org/esr/clone-unix-guide/contents.html (but this URL is not permanent; you'd be best off finding my home page and surfing to it from there). *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH *** You say you want cutting-edge hacking tools without having to mortgage your wife, your kids, and your dog? You say arrogant workstation vendors are getting you down? You say you crave fast UNIX on cheap hardware, but you don't know how to go about getting it? Well, pull up a chair and take the load off yer feet, bunky, because this is the PC-clone UNIX Software Buyer's Guide posting. Many FAQs, including this one, are available via FTP on the archive site rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers. The name under which this FAQ is archived appears in the Archive-name line above. This FAQ is updated monthly; if you want the latest version, please query the archive rather than emailing the overworked maintainer. (If you email me questions that address gaps in the FAQ material, you will probably get a reply that says "Sorry, everything I know about this topic is in the Guide". If you find out the *answer* to such a question, please share it with me for the Guide, so everyone can benefit.) What's new in this issue: * A major reorganization of the hardware compatibility tables, to reflect the fact that all the Univel versions are about equivalent. * A new hardware compatibility table for sound cards * Information on both UHC products, the 4.0 and the 4.2. * Information on NeXTStep. Gentle Reader: if you end up buying something based on information from this Guide, please do yourself and the net a favor; make a point of telling the vendor "Eric's FAQ sent me" or some equivalent. The idea isn't to hype me personally, I've already got all the notoriety I need from doing things like _The_New_Hacker's_Dictionary_ --- but if we can show vendors that the Guide influences a lot of purchasing decisions, I can be a more effective advocate for the net's interests, and for you. (What do *I* use? My home environment is Dell 2.2 plus SGCS X on a Swan Technologies 486 DB, a 486DX/50 with SCSI and local-bus S3. I plan to move to Esix as soon as their new release arrives. I'm also admin of a BBS running under BSD/386 on a no-name clone 486/DX33). 0. CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION. What this posting is. How to help improve it. Summary of the 386/486 UNIX market, including 8 SVr4 products, SCO UNIX (an SVr3.2), BSD/386, and Linux. What's new in this issue. II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. A brief discussion of general hardware requirements and compatibility considerations in the base SVR4 code from UNIX Systems Laboratories (referred to below as the USG code). None of this automatically applies to SCO, LINUX, or BSD/386, which break out the corresponding information into their separate vendor reports. III. FEATURE COMPARISON. A feature table which gives basic price & feature info and summarizes differences between the versions. IV. VENDOR REPORTS. Detailed descriptions of the major versions and vendors, including information collected from the net on bugs, supported and unsupported hardware and the like. V. UPCOMING PORTS, FREEWARE VERSIONS, AND CLONES. Less-detailed descriptions of other products in the market. VI. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY TABLES. A set of tables summarizes vendor claims and user reports on hardware compatibility. VII. FREEWARE ACCESS FOR SVR4 SYSTEMS. Information on the SVR4 binaries archive. VIII. FREE ADVICE TO VENDORS. Your humble editor's soapbox. An open letter to the UNIX vendors designed to get them all hustling to improve their products and services as fast as possible. IX. INTO THE FUTURE. Things to know about where the major vendors (especially USG) think they're going. X. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND ENVOI. Credit where credit is due. Some praises and pans. What comes next.... Note: versions 1.0 through 4.0 of this posting had a different archive name (386-buyers-faq) and included the following now separate FAQs as sections. pc-unix/hardware -- (formerly HOT TIPS FOR HARDWARE BUYERS) Useful general tips for anybody buying clone hardware for a UNIX system. Overview of the market. Technical points. When, where, and how to buy. usl-bugs -- (formerly KNOWN BUGS IN THE USL CODE). A discussion of bugs known or believed to be generic to the USG code, with indications as to which porting houses have fixed them. None of this applies to the two BSD-based versions. Readers may also find material of interest in Dick Dunn's general 386 UNIX FAQ list, posted monthly to comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit and news.answers. I. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this posting is to pool public knowledge and USENET feedback about all leading-edge versions of UNIX for commodity 386 and 486 hardware. It also includes extensive information on how to buy cheap clone hardware to support your UNIX. This document is maintained and periodically updated as a service to the net by Eric S. Raymond , who began it for the very best self-interested reason that he was in the market and didn't believe in plonking down several grand without doing his homework first (no, I don't get paid for this, though I have had a bunch of free software and hardware dumped on me as a result of it!). Corrections, updates, and all pertinent information are welcomed at that address. This posting is broadcast monthly to the USENET group comp.unix.sys5.r4, to other related groups, and to a list of vendor addresses. If you are a vendor representative, please check the feature chart and vendor report to make sure the information on your company is current and correct. If it is not, please email me a correction ASAP. If you are a knowledgeable user of any of these products, please send me a precis of your experiences for the improvement of the feedback sections. At time of writing, here are the major products in this category: ----------------------- Univel and its resellers -------------------------- Univel UnixWare Release 4.2 abbreviated as "Univel" below Consensys System V Release 4.2 abbreviated as "Cons" below UHC UnixWare Release 4.2 abbreviated as "UHC4.2" below ----------------------- System V Release 4.0 ------------------------------ ESIX System V Release 4.0.4.1 abbreviated as "Esix" below Micro Station Technology SVr4 UNIX abbreviated as "MST" below Microport System V Release 4.0 version 4 abbreviated as "uPort" below UHC Version 4.0.3.6 abbreviated as "UHC" below ------------------------ Non-USG Commercial UNIXes ------------------------ SCO Open Desktop 3.0 abbreviated as "ODT" below BSD/386 1.0 abbreviated as "BSDI" below NEXTSTEP 3.1 abbreviated as "NeXT" below ----------------------- Freeware UNIXes ----------------------------------- Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X abbreviated as "LGX" below Soft Landing Software abbreviated as "SLS" below Note that ODT is SCO's full system with networking and X windows; what they call SCO UNIX is missing most of those trimmings. BSD/386 is *not* based on USG code, but on the CSRG NET2 distribution tape. Complete sources are included with every system shipped! LGX is a freeware OS built around Linux, a POSIX-emulating UNIX lookalike written from scratch by Linus Torvalds and others and currently in late beta. The information given here is based on the Yggdrasil Software CD-ROM distribution, which adds the GNU tools, X and other well-known freeware. SLS is also built around Linux. It's distributed both free on the net and as a low-price commercial offering. All the vendors listed offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, but they'll be sticky about it except where there's an insuperable hardware compatibility problem or you trip over a serious bug. One (UHC) charges a 25% restocking fee on returns. BSDI offers a 60-day guarantee starting from the date of receipt by the customer and says: "If a customer is dissatisfied with the product, BSDI unconditionally refunds the purchase price." Some other ports are listed in section V. II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS To run any of these systems, you need at least the following: 4 MB of RAM and 80MB of hard disk (SCO says 8MB minimum for ODT 3.0). However, this is an absolute minimum; you'll want at least 8 MB of RAM for reasonable performance. And depending on options installed, the OS will eat from 40 to 120 meg of the disk, so you'll want at least 200 meg for real work. To run X you'll need a VGA monitor and card, and 12-16MB RAM would be a good idea. Installation from these systems requires that you boot from a hi-density 3.5 floppy (some also supply a 5.25" boot disk, but the older floppy size is rapidly passing out of use). Most vendors offer the bulk of the system on a QIC 60 1/4-inch tape; otherwise you may be stuck with a hefty extra media charge and loading over 60 diskettes! CD-ROM is increasingly popular as a distribution medium; SCO and BSDI offer it, and LGX is *only* distributed on CD-ROM. BSDI will even sell you a CD-ROM reader for US$225 (or you buy the same Mitsumi drive at Radio Shack or Best Buy for US$199+tax). In general, if the initial boot gets far enough to display a request for the first disk or tape load, you're in good shape. USG SVr4 conforms to the following software standards: ANSI X3.159-1989 C, POSIX 1003.1, SVID 3rd edition, FIPS 151-1, XPG3, and System V Release 4 ABI. 4.0.4 ports conform to the iBCS-2 binary standard. The SVr4 C compiler (C Issue 5) includes some non-ANSI extensions (however, note that as of mid-1992, no SVr4 ports other than AT&T's have been formally POSIX-certified). SCO conforms to the following standards: ANSI X3.159-1989 C, POSIX 1003.1, FIPS 151-1, XPG3, iBCS2, and SVID 2nd Edition. Despite the marketing droids hacking at its version number, SCO is not conformant to System V Release 4 or SVID 3rd Edition. All SVr4 versions include support for BSD-style file systems with 255-character segment names and fragment allocation. In general this is a Good Thing, but some SVr3.2 and XENIX binaries can be confused by the different size of the inode index. You need to run these on an old-style USG file system. SCO (as of SCO UNIX 3.2v4 and ODT 2.0) has an `EAFS' file system which adds symlinks and long filenames. Old SCO binaries can be confused by long filenames. All SVr4.0.3, SVr4.0.4 and SCO versions include the UNIX manual pages on-line. You can order the Prentice-Hall's SVr4 books direct from Prentice-Hall at (201)-767-5937. Warning: they ain't cheap! Buying the whole 13 volumes will cost you a couple hundred bucks. Microport has their own manual sets derived from the same USG source tapes as the Prentice-Hall set, included with their system; UHC bundles in the Prentice-Hall books themselves. The SVr4.2 versions, due to malignant idiocy by USG, typically do *not* include on-line man pages. SVr4 includes hooks for a DOS bridge that allows you to run DOS applications under UNIX (the two products that actually do this are DOS Merge and VP/ix). Most vendors do not include either of these with the base system, however. All these systems have X11R5 and support up to 1024x768 by 256 color super-VGA under X. The 640x480 by 16 colors of standard VGA is no problem; everybody supports that compatibly. There are a couple of known hardware compatibility problems the USG code doesn't yet address. See the companion "Known Bugs" FAQ. III. FEATURE COMPARISON To interpret the table below, bear in mind the following things: All 4.0 and 4.2-based products are based on the SVr4 kernel from the UNIX Support Group (USG), an AT&T spinoff now owned by Novell and formerly known as UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL). Thus they share over 90% of their code and features. Product differentiation is done primarily through support policy, bug-fix quality and add-on software. The `USG support?' column refers to the fact that USG support is a separate charge from the source license. With the former, a porting house gets access to USG's own OS support people and their bug fix database, and the porting house's bug fixes can get folded back into the USG code. These systems come either in a "crippled" version that supports at most two simultaneous users, or an unlimited version. Generally the vendors do allow you to upgrade your license via a patch disk if your requirements change, but this invariably costs slightly more than the base price difference between 2-user and unlimited systems. SCO now offers 2, 16, and 512 licenses, and +16 upgrades. That makes the 32 user license cheaper than unlimited, and it's the right size for a small multiuser system. The "run-time" system in the price tables below is a minimum installation, just enough to run binaries. The "complete" system includes every software option offered by the vendor; it does *not* bundle in the cost of the Prentice-Hall docs offered by some vendors as an option. You may well get away with less, especially if you're willing to do your own X installation. Starting with SCO UNIX 3.2v4.2 and Open Desktop/Server 3.0, SCO is selling 3 levels of license: 2-user, 16-user and unlimited. Our "complete" listing is for the unlimited system. (Note that these tiers of license are a consequence of USG's royalty policies: each vendor must pay a royalty to USG for each license sold, and the size of the royalty varies according to how many users are allowed.) Prices are for QIC-tape configurations, except SCO and LGX which are for the CD-ROM distrbution. Some vendors will supply the OS on floppies, but they don't enjoy doing so and may charge substantially more for a diskette version. Typically, CD-ROM distributions cost less than tapes. The `Upgrade plan' section refers only to upgrades from previous versions of the same vendor's software. The numbers under support-with-purchase are days counted from date of shipment. The intent is to help you get initially up and running. The engineer counts below are as supplied by vendors; .5 of an engineer means someone is officially working half-time. The `Uses USENET' column is `yes' if there is allegedly at least one person in the engineering department who reads USENET technical groups regularly and is authorized to respond to USENET postings reporting problems. The `DOS Bridge' row gives the version number of DOSMerge supplied with the system, if any. DosMerge 2.0 has roughly the caoabilities of DOS 3.0, though it is reported to be quite flaky and hard to configure. DOSMerge 2.2 has the capabilities of DOS 5.0, and DOS Merge 3.1 has the capabilities of DOS 5.0 + Windows running in "Standard" (286) mode. The AF_UNIX row tells which versions support UNIX-domain sockets. These are a separate namespace from the INET sockets, local to each machine and used by some applications because they cannot be spoofed over the network. The `ISO9660' column tells whether the OS can read ISO9660 filesystems. The `Rock Ridge?' column tells whether the Rock Ridge extensions for UNIX are known to be supported. A dash `-' means the given feature or configuration is not offered. A `yes' means it is currently offered; `soon' means the vendor has represented that it will be offered in the near future. A `no' means it's not offered, but there's some related information in the attached footnote. UHC sells two different products; 4.2 for end-users, 4.0 for OEMs. We describe the 4.0 product in the report sections, as the 4.2 is effectively identical to UnixWare. All the Univel packagings are pretty similar. Differences, where they show up at all, are in hardware support of peripherals like network cards and higher-end video cards. Table 1: PRODUCT BASE VERSION AND PRICE System Price (US$) Has Base USG Run-time only Developer's printed Vendor Version support 2-user Unlim 2-user Unlim docs? ----------------------- Univel and its resellers --------------- Univel 4.2 y 249(q) 1299 599 1898 y Cons 4.2 - 295(p) 645(p) 995(p) 1375(e) y UHC 4.2 - (Univel list w/30%+ discount) y ----------------------- System V Release 4.0 ------------------- Esix 4.0.4 y - - - 895(e) - MST 4.0.3 - 299 499 799 999 y uPort 4.0.4 y 500 1000 3000 3500 y(d) UHC 4.0.3 - 695 1090 1990 2385 y ------------------------ Non-USG Commercial UNIXes ------------- SCO 3.2.2 - 595(e) 1595(e) 2290(e) 4590(e) y BSDI 4.3BSD - - 545(c) - 1045(c) - NExT Mach - - 795 - 1395 y ----------------------- Freeware UNIXes ------------------------ LGX Linux - - - - 60 - SLS Linux - - - - 99 y Table 2: VENDOR SUPPORT FEATURES With 800 Support FTP Read # Engineers Support Vendor sale number? BBS? server? USENET? Support Devel. contracts Univel (h) y y(n) - y 5 ?? (h) Cons 30 - y(g) - - 2 4.5 per year UHC 30 - - - - 2 27 per year Esix (h) - - soon y 3 ?? (h) MST 30 - - - - 2 3 per year uPort 30 - y - y 4 6 per year SCO 0 y y(n) y y 60+ 55+ per year BSDI 60 y - y y 1.5 6.5 per year NExT ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? LGX - - - y(b) y ?? ?? - SGS - - - y y 1 1 per year Table 3: DISTRIBUTION MEDIA Floppy disk --------- QIC tape ---------- -DAT- via 3.5" 5.25" 60MB 125MB 150MB 250MB 2GB CD-ROM network SCO y y y - - - - y - Cons y(i) y(i) - - y - - - - Esix y - y(o) - - - - y - Univel - - y(o) - - - - y y(r) MST y y y y y - y - - uPort y y y - y - - - - UHC - - - y y - - - - BSDI y - - - - y y y - NExT - - - - - - - - - LGX - - - - - - - y - SLS y y - - y - - y y Table 4: X OPTIONS, MISCELLANEA AND ADD-ONS Open Motif X DOS UNIX ISO9660 Rock Look Desktop Bridge? SLIP? PPP? sockets support Ridge? Univel 4i 1.1.4 - y - - ?? y y Esix 1.0 1.1.2 - 5.0 y n(l) - soon - MST 2.0 (j) 3.0 - - - y y - uPort 4i 1.1.3 2.0 soon y - ?? - - UHC 4i 1.1.3 - - soon soon ?? ?? - SCO - 1.2.2 3.5 3.1 y y n y - BSDI - (j) - y y y y y y NExT ?? ?? ?? y ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? LGX - (k) - y y - y y y SLS - (k) - y y - y y y (b) Linux is *distributed* via FTP. (c) $1045 is for credit-card tape orders; POs are $50 more; CD-ROM $50 less Educational site licenses are available for $2K each. (d) With complete system only. (e) Price is for CD-ROM; add $100 for tape, $200 for floppies. (g) Support contract customers. (h) Unlimited free phone support. (i) There's an $80 media charge for the diskettes equivalent to the normal 60MB distribution tape. (j) Motif is available from a third party. (k) Motif for Linux is available from MetroLink for $199; see the Hardware Guide for contact info. It's also available from SoftStar in Italy, selling for $150. Contact eb@cnuce.cnr.it for details. (l) Mark Boucher has written a PPP driver for ESIX. (m) You can get a MUI module supporting Motif for $95 extra. (n) Patches are available on Compuserve and FTP; SCO also has its own CompuServe forum. (o) 3.5" floppy drive required for booting (p) Tape price; $80 more for diskette. (q) This is the CD-ROM price; QIC tape is 50 more (r) You need to have NetWare on the target system for network install; this facility is standard on all UnixWares. In general, the SVr4 market breaks into two tiers. The bottom tier is Consensys and MST; low-ball outfits selling stock USG with minimal support for real cheap. The top tier is Esix, Microport, UHC, and Univel; these guys are selling support and significant enhancements and charge varying premiums for it. Your first, most basic buying decision has to be which tier best serves your needs. One further note: it *is* possible to buy some of these systems at less than the list the vendor charges! I found some really substantial discounts in one mail-order catalog ("The Programmer's Shop"; call 1-(800)-421-8006 to get on their mailing list, but be prepared to wade through a lot of DOS cruft). IV. VENDOR REPORTS Vendor reports start here. Each one is led by a form feed. NAME: Univel UnixWare Release 4.2 VENDOR: Univel 2180 Fortune Drive San Jose, CA 95131 (800)-4-UNIVEL SOFTWARE OPTIONS: The package comes in two versions; the Personal Edition is a limited-user workstation platform, with only Netware networking support bundled (TCP/IP is an option). Another add-on called Personal Utilities adds unlimited user capabilities, BSD compatability, and additional font support and demonstration applications. The Applications Server is an unlimited-user version which includes all of the above packages plus extra server facilities; TCP/IP and NFS is bundled. They offer a special bundle for developers for $695. Ask for details. ADD-ONS: The Development system is sold separately from the base system, and can work on either the Personal Edition or Application Server. Add-ons for the development system include the Motif API and a device driver development package. An encryption package provides kernel-level support for secure NFS and other DES encryption facilities. KNOWN BUGS: As yet, there are no known bugs specific to the Univel port. Some bugs generic to all SysVr4.2s are described in the companion usl-bugs posting. NAME: Consensys System V Release 4.2 VENDOR: Consensys 1301 Pat Booker Road Universal City, TX 78148 (800)-388-1896 (sales) (416)-940-2900 (support) info@consensys.com SOFTWARE OPTIONS: Same as for Univel product. ADD-ONS: Basically this is a stock USG Destiny system with the stock USG bugs. It doesn't seem to carry over the Consensys 4.0.3 changes. SUPPORT: You get free phone support until your system is installed, to a maximum of 30 days. After that they charge per half-hour of phone time. They like to do support by fax and callback. They'll sell support contracts by the year. They have a support BBS at (416)-752-2084. Knowledgeable customers report they're good about supporting the bits they wrote (see below) but terrible at dealing with generic SVr4 problems. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. KNOWN BUGS: Trying to install the system administration package *after* first installation of the OS with v4pkg doesn't work. You can work around this by using `pkgadd -d ctape1'. WHAT THE USERS SAY: During the life of their 4.0.3 release, Consensys had a dismal reputation on USENET; horror stories of nonexistent followup on bugs abounded. However, David Mason writes "they appear to be installing a lot more telephone support. In fact for a yearly fee they will sell support and they apparently have been hiring people for a few months now. Additionally, when I talked to a support person there, he seemed actually willing to help me, as opposed to the hostile go-away attitude I encountered shortly after we bought their SVR4 product 9 months or so ago. Maybe they are learning." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: These people used to be the bad boys of the SVr4.0 market --- not a company you wanted to deal with unless low price was the most important thing. They've done a 180 in attitude, though --- the secretive, defensive stance I had excoriated in past Guides is gone along with (ptui) Gary Anderson, the suit- to-end-all-suits who used to be marketing VP there. The new guy, Bob Rigley, is much more hacker-friendly and even has a net address (bob@consensys.com). Bob admits that Consensys is still (his words) "pretty much a what you see is what you get" product. Support is minimal. However, the server systems and developer bundles are cheaper than Univel's regular prices. so they may be a viable alternative for developers savvy enough not to need much support. NAME: ESIX System V Release 4.0.4.1 VENDOR Esix Systems, Inc. 100 Chaparral Court Suite 260 Anaheim CA 92808 (714)-998-9600 support@esix.com info@esix.com ADD-ONS: None. SOFTWARE OPTIONS: ESIX can be bought in the following pieces: ITEM CD-ROM Tape Floppy Base system (+networking+devsys) 895 1095 1195 GUI 495 595 FUTURE PLANS James Hillegass , president of the James River Group that now owns and runs Esix, says: "[our current release] 4.2 MP (what USG formerly called 4.3), and we plan to do a couple of MP implementations along with the single processor version, all to be released around Feb - Apr of '94." He adds: "Intel is pushing us on the MP front, as they need the additional power. It isn't well known, but Esix has more than 1000 copies of UNIX installed at Intel plants all over the world. Intel is using it to run their plants. This means that they are constantly pushing for greater performance and breaking anything that can be broken. It is very exciting and challenging work for us, fixing what they find, and trying to stay a half step ahead." Your humble editor thinks this is probably the rest reason to believe that Esix will attain its reliability goals. SUPPORT: Purchase buys you unlimited free phone support. However, be warned that there are only two engineers assigned to the job (with another people doing half-time support) and they are swamped. It is, however, policy that all development people have to do part-time support. Patches will soon be available via anonymous ftp to esix.com. TECHNICAL NOTES: Esix's X server in 4.0.4.1 is the high-quality X386 product from X/Inside (formerly SGCS). Esix's DOS emulator in 4.0.4.1 will also support Windows 3.0 applications. Windows 3.1 support is coming. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. ESIX supports an unusually wide range of peripherals. They advertise support for the Textronix X terminal. No one has reported any incompatibility horror stories yet. KNOWN BUGS: Esix has recently responded point-by-point to the "Known Bugs in the USL UNIX distribution" (usl-bugs) FAQ, which see. Many of these bugs have been fixed in their new 4.0.4.1 release. COMMENTS: Unlimited free support sounds wonderful, and might be ESIX's strongest selling point. However, ESIX users on the net have been heard to gripe that in practice, you get the support you've paid for from Esix --- that is, none. That isn't at all surprising given Esix's staffing level. If this guarantee is to be more than a hollow promise, their technical support has to get more depth. Evan Leibovich is a long-time netter who makes his living as a consultant and owns an Esix dealership (he now does Univel too). He says you can get ESIX at a substantial discount from him or other dealers, also that dealers are supposed to do first-line support for their customers (which he does, but admits other dealers often fail to). Evan is obviously devoted to the product and probably the right guy to email first if you think you'd be interested in it. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Ron Mackey writes "In general, we are pleased with ESIX. We still have problems driving the serial ports at speeds greater than 9600 baud. We also still see occasional PANICs. These appear to be related to problems with the virtual terminal manager." This may be the generic USG asy problem again. William W. Austin writes "The support from Esix seems to be usable if (a) you are a hacker, (b) you know unix (sVr4 internals help a lot), and (c) you get past the sales guy who answers the help line (Jeff [Ellis] is *very* helpful). If I were a computer-semi-literate, commercial user who only wanted his printer to work, etc., I might be up a creek for some problems (no drivers for some boards, no support for mouse tablets, etc., but that's what VARs are for). All in all, the support is at least a little better than what I expected for free -- in many cases it is *far* better than the support I got from $CO (is SCO really owned by Ebenezer Scrooge?)" [Note: Jeff Ellis has since left.] A longer appreciation from Ed Hall : "I had a problem with the ESIX X server. I got through to technical support immediately, and was promised a fix disk. The guy on the phone was actually able to chat with on of the developers to check to see if the disk would solve the problem. The disk came four days later." "On the other hand," he continues, "I get the feeling that ESIX has only made a mediocre effort to shake out the bugs before releasing their system-- or even their fixes. For example, they `repaired' their X server, but the new server only ran as root (it made some privileged calls to enable I/O ports)--they quickly had to release a second update to fix this new problem. They obviously fixed a lot of things in the new server, and performance is improved quite a bit as well, but the stupid error they made in the first "fixed" version should have been found with only the most minimal of testing." "They've done some work on the serial driver, but there are still some glitches (occasional dropped characters on a busy system at 38400bps, and a real doozy of a problem--a system panic--when doing simultaneous opens and ioctl's on a tty0xh and ttyM0xh device. This latter problem was due to my using the M0xh and 0xh devices improperly, but panics are inexcusable. No idea if this is a SYSVR4 problem or due to their fixes.)" "So my impressions of them are mixed. Perhaps I just lucked out in geting such rapid response on my support call, but I was impressed by it nonetheless. On the other hand, their QA needs work..." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: Esix changed owners in early '93. Their parent company, Everex, went chapter 11. The Esix division was sold, intact, to James River (makers of the ICE UNIX-to-DOS bridge). James Hillegass, president/owner of James River, has told me that the new Esix is going to stress reliability and wide hardware support. NAME MST UNIX VENDOR: Micro Station Technology, Inc. 1140 Kentwood Ave. Cupertino, CA. 95014 (408)-253-3898 sales@mst.com (product info & orders) support@mst.com (support) ADD-ONS: None. SOFTWARE OPTIONS: C Development System Networking X11R5 Motif Open Look (obsolescent) MST is considering carrying FreeTools; they already have a PD-ware package including many GNU tools which they offer on floppies for $20. SUPPORT: 30 days of support free with purchase. 1 year of fax/email support is $299. FUTURE PLANS: No plans for 4.0.4. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: They decline to release information on hardware known *not* to work for fear of offending vendors. They have an option to support a SCSI color scanner. Full info on request. KNOWN BUGS: This port probably uses the stock USG 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it probably has the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD- compatibility string functions. The DOS support is only 2.0-compatible (< 32-meg DOS partitions). COMMENTS: Another outfit offering stock USG real cheap. They were actually the first to try this (in Fall '91) and were the price leader until Consensys blew past them. These guys really want to sell you preinstalled UNIX on their clone hardware. Configurations range from $1349 to $5599 and look like pretty good value. WHAT THE USERS SAY: I have one experience report from Ray Hill, , who's been running MST on a 486 for a month or so. He says it works; elm, cnews, and trn are up, so standard UNIX sources compile up and work fine. His only criticism is the relative skimpiness of the printed docs. Harlan Stockman writes "MST has been very helpful at every step of the way; phone and e-mail support have been timely." Geoffrey Leach warns that some of the files (specifically, socket library headers) necessary to build X11R5 are bundled in the networking option --- this may mean you have to buy it even if you don't actually intend to network any machines. REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: Anyone who's been to a hobbyist computer expo in the last five years knows that the low-price clone-hardware market is full of small, hungry companies run by immigrants, often family businesses. Their English is sometimes a little shaky but (in my experience) they're honest and their product is good, and their prices are *real* aggressive. MST seems to be one of these outfits. It is now the low-price leader in this market. NAME: Microport System V Release 4.0 version 4 VENDOR: Microport, Inc. 108 Whispering Pines Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066 (800)-367-8649 sales@mport.com (sales and product info) support@mport.com (support) SOFTWARE OPTIONS: Networking (TCP/IP, NFS) Software Development User Graphics Module (X GUIs) Graphics Development Module (X toolkits + man pages). DOS Merge ADD-ONS: A few freeware utilities are included, notably kermit(1) and less(1). They include a single-user copy of a program called `JSB MultiView'. It's a character-oriented desktop program that front-ends conventional UNIX services for character terminals and also provides a calendar service and pop-up phone-book. It's something like a character-oriented X windows; each on-screen window looks like a terminal to the application. SUPPORT: The base price includes printed docs. This is effectively the same content as the Prentice-Hall SVr4 books; both are troffed off the SVr4 source tapes. They have been very lightly edited for the Microport environment. The base price includes 30 days or 1 year of phone support respectively depending on whether you bought the base or complete system. Support is said to be excellent for serious problems, not so good for minor ones (this is understandable if one assumes their support staff is very good but overworked, a hypothesis which is plausible on other evidence). They have a support BBS at (408)-438-7270 or 438-7521. However, the level of activity is low; one customer said (late February 1992) that they hadn't put anything useful on it in six months (Microport responds that they've been too busy hammering on r4 to spend lots of energy on it). FUTURE PLANS: DOS Merge will be folded into the system soon. Microport believes they have a lead in multiprocessing SVr4 UNIX and intend to push it. File-system support for CD-ROMs is coming. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. Math co-processors: Cyrix 20/25/33, Intel 80387 20/25/33, Weitek. No one has reported any incompatibility horror stories yet. Bernoulli boxes and Irwin tapes won't fly, but who cares. TECHNICAL NOTES: When I asked what differentiates Microport from the other SVr4 products, the answer I got is "performance". The Microport people feel they've put a lot of successful work into kernel tuning. And, indeed, benchmarks from independent sources show that Microport's fork(2) operation is quite fast. Other vendors show about 60 forks per second on the AIM Technologies SUITE II benchmarks; Microport cranks 80. This is the most dramatic performance difference the AIM tools reveal among any of these products. Microport's other benchmark statistics are closely comparable to those of its competitors. Microport also offers a multiprocessing SVr4 which will run on the Compaq SystemPro, the ALR PowerPro, the DEC 433MP, and the Chips & Technologies Mpax system. Microport has moved the socket headers and libraries necessary to build X out of the networking option package into the development system, so you don't have to buy an extra module to hack X. KNOWN BUGS: According to Microport, this port uses the stock USG 4.0.4 libraries. Thus it must have the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD-compatibility string functions. David Wexelblat reports that "Microport's enhanced asy driver does not work correctly (or at all) for hardware flow control - you can't open the ttyXXh devices under any circumstances. This was true in 3.1, and is still true in 4.1. The good news is that SAS (Streams-FAS) works fine for modems. But SAS won't work with the USG serial mouse driver. So I've got asy on my mouse port and SAS on the other one on my dumb-card. [...] Microport is still prone to silly errors. The Motif development system, which is described in the release notes as being included with the Motif runtime system in the 'complete' package, is in fact missing from the tape. They have it available separately, but I had to call them to get it. The 'pixed' application for X.desktop 3.0 is compiled with shared libraries that are not included with the release. Hence it does not work. I had to call them about this, too." COMMENTS: These people sold a lot of shrink-wrapped UNIXes years ago before going chapter 11. They're back, leaner and meaner (with a total staff of just 15). Microport says it's primarily interested in the systems-integration market, where customers are typically going to be volume buyers qualifying for deep discounts. Thus, they're relatively undisturbed by the certainty that their high price point is losing them sales to individuals. WHAT THE USERS SAY: I've received one good comprehensive experience report, largely favorable, from David Wexelblat . REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: Microport is a small, hungry outfit with a lot to prove; they've already gone bust once (I was a customer at the time :-() and they haven't yet demonstrated that they've got a better strategy this time out. They're perhaps a mite too expensive for the support quality they can offer with less than fifteen people, and kernel-tuning isn't going to win them a following on hardware that every year swamps those tweaks with huge increases in speed for constant dollars. But, like UHC, they have techies answering the phones and the techies have a clue. This certainly improves them as a bet for wizards and developers. If multiprocessing is important to you, and/or you're looking for a small outfit where you can develop personal working relationships with the tech people who matter, Microport might be a good way to go. NAME: UHC Version 3.6 VENDOR: UHC Corp. 3600 S. Gessner Suite 110 Houston, TX 77063 (713)-782-2700 support@uhc.com NOTE: The UHC SVr4.0 is now for OEM sale only --- no end-users need apply. UHC now offers end-users Univel UnixWare. Basically, they want to know that prospective SVr4 customers know their UNIX and have a requirement for customization or special hardware support. SOFTWARE OPTIONS: UHC SysVr4.0 has the following options: Networking package (TCP/IP), X + Motif, X + Open Look. UnixWare options are as for Univel. ADD-ONS: UHC adds the following things to its Univel product: * Modem-control utility * Utilities to set defaults for tar and cpio utilities. SUPPORT: The base price includes printed docs. This is effectively the same content as the Prentice-Hall SVr4 books; both are troffed off the SVr4 source tapes. 30 days free phone support with purchase. All their engineers take tech-support calls for part of their day. They have 2 doing it full-time. The product manager is a techie himself and takes his share of calls. A support contract costs $1195 for one year. This includes 75% off on all upgrades. They are in the process of bringing up a BBS with a window into their bug report and fix/workaround database. It was emphasized to me that UHC wants to be known for the quality of their support, which they feel is the product's strongest differentiating feature. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. The asy driver in version 2.0 won't talk to the NS16550AFN UART, which is supposed to be pin-compatible with the standard 16450. KNOWN BUGS: This port probably uses the stock USG 4.0.3 libraries. Thus it probably has the known bug with sigvec() and may have the rumored bug in the BSD- compatibility string functions. COMMENTS: They claim that according to USG they have the largest installed base of SVr4 customers, and to have been first to market with a shrink-wrapped SVr4 (in 1990). UHC also claims to have performed and maintained IBM's official UNIX port for the MicroChannel machines. A subsidiary of Anam, "a holding company with a diversified portfolio". UHC now also sells and supports Univel UnixWare. They say their policy will be to continue sales and support of both UHC UNIX and UnixWare, as they feel the products are apprpriate for different markets. WHAT THE USERS SAY: The only comment I've yet seen on the UHC OS was an extended description of a successful installation by a satisfied netter. He made it sound like a good solid product. I have one absolutely incandescently glowing report on UHC support from a developer named Steve Showalter . He says: "We've been running UHC's OS for about a year now...been EXTREMELY happy with it. The support we receive is without a doubt, the finest we have received from any vendor." Duke Smith (c/o somesh@watson.bm.com) writes: "Another absolutely incandescently glowing report on UHC support: I called the Programmer's Shop about UHC & wound up talking to UHC tech support to find out if the sucker would run on my machine. The guy took considerable time to explain all the different things that might be causing the problem, and emphasized that the same hardware problems which were probably causing Consensys not to run would also hose UHC. This led me to contact ALR tech support (also a glower) who took all of 1-1/2 days (not including shipping) to do the necessary upgrades, on warranty because apparently their ads that it will run Unix are covered by warranty. The glowing thing about UHC is, the guy helped me get a competitor's port working, and I told him he was gonna get in dutch with the marketroids and his response was that maybe I would remember them the next time I or someone I knew needed a system. He's right. I'll use Consensys until I can afford something better for my own system (it's still better than DOS...), but from now on my clients will get pointed toward UHC, not Consensys, whose absent-parent attitude is going to keep them from ever becoming anything but the destitute hacker's Unix vendor." On the other hand, William G. Bunton : "So, I give a thumbs up for the product. I give a thumbs down for the company, and it's enough that I'm taking my future business elsewhere." He tells a horror story about the 2.0 version involving a three-month runaround, a letter to their VP of marketing, and lots of broken promises. Apparently UHC does sometimes drop the ball. This is reinforced by Darryl V. McDaniel: "Based upon conversations with UHC and other people with UHC 4.0.3.6, UHC has a severe problem with revision control. Just because two customers have 4.0.3.6, doesn't mean that they all have the same version. It appears that UHC doesn't even know what they are shipping." The best evidence he gives is that he's never seen the mouse- middle-button problem which others (including your humble editor) have reported. He also says: "Man pages have wrong section numbers, confusion between compatibility package (SVR4, BSD, XENIX), etc. Man pages from DDDK overlay man pages of same root name. UHC acknowledges that this is their bug." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: I found both the people I talked to friendly, candid, technically knowledgeable, and willing to answer sticky questions. I came away with a very positive impression of the outfit's operating style. There are experienced UNIX developers who value dealing with a small, responsive outfit where they can develop good working relationships with individuals. UHC says it likes to sell to wizards and might be a good choice for these people. NAME: SCO UNIX System V Release 3.2 Version 4.2 SCO Open Desktop Lite Release 3.0 SCO Open Desktop Release 3.0 SCO Open Server Network System Release 3.0 SCO Open Server Enterprise System Release 3.0 VENDOR: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. 400 Encinal Street PO Box 1900 Santa Cruz,CA 95061-1900 1-(800)-SCO-UNIX (sales) 1-(800)-347-4381 (customer service and tech support) info@sco.com --- product info by email, sales requests support@sco.com --- support requests (support contract customers only) SOFTWARE OPTIONS: All of SCO's products include printed documentation; however, special "limited documentation" editions of the multiuser Open Server offerings are available at lower cost for use in large multi-system installations, by VARs creating embedded applications, etc. The actual products used for the price table were: Run-time 2-user: SCO UNIX 3.2v4.2 2-user CD-ROM Run-time 16-user: SCO UNIX 3.2v4.2 16-user CD-ROM Run-time unlim-user: SCO UNIX 3.2v4.2 unlim-user CD-ROM Development 2-user: SCO Open Desktop Lite 3.0 CD-ROM + SCO Open Desktop Development System 3.0 CD-ROM Development 16-user: SCO Open Server Enterprise System 16-user CD-ROM, limited docs + SCO Open Desktop Development System 3.0 CD-ROM Development unlim-user: SCO Open Server Enterprise System unlim-user CD-ROM, limited docs + SCO Open Desktop Development System 3.0 CD-ROM Add $200 each to the last two for full docs. Aescription of ODT Lite appears below; basically, includes UNIX+TCP+X but not NFS, LAN Manager Client, or DOS Merge. In addition to all the other things, a bundle is currently on sale to qualified developers (which means "pick up the phone and call SCO to find out whether you're qualified"). The bundle offers ODT 2.0 Personal System (i.e. 2-user) and ODT 2.0 Development System plus the SCO Optimizing C Compiler, all on floppy + tape (QIC-60) media, for a total of $795. You do not have to be a member of a developer's program; that's the total cost. Down sides: 2-user system, limited quantities, limited support, must qualify, and down-rev software (but can be upgraded). Up sides: currently the only way to get the Intel Optimizing C Compiler, and a very good price (list price of the two ODT components is like $2500, not even considering icc). SCO's package and option structure is (excessively) complicated. At the moment the `bundles' to keep track of are: SCO UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 Version 4.2 "UNIX" SCO Open Desktop Lite Release 3.0 "ODTL" SCO Open Desktop Release 3.0 "ODT" SCO Open Server Network System Release 3.0 "OSNS" SCO Open Server Enterprise System Release 3.0 "OSES" The "SEPARATE" column indicates whether and how that item is available separately, e.g. if you were building a system starting with SCO UNIX and adding unbundled components. UNIX ODTL ODT OSNS OSES SEPARATE SCO UNIX 3.2v4.2 x x x x x 2-user license available x x x 16-user license available x x x unlimited-user license available x x x "License pack" limited printed doc package avail x x Yes X11R5, Motif 1.2.2, X.Desktop 3.5 x x x R4/1.14/no xdt DOS Merge 3.1 x x Yes MS-DOS 5.0 x x Bundle w/Merge SCO LLI (net card) Drivers 3.1.1 x x x x Download SCO TCP/IP 1.2.1 x x x x Yes SCO NFS 1.2.1 x x x Yes SCO IPX/SPX 1.0.3 x Yes LAN Manager Client x **LAN Man Server PC-Interface server x From Locus SCO IPX/SPX is an implementation of the Novell IPX/SPX protocol stack. Applications exist which use this. The only application SCO provides is a network login service; this does not provide Novell filesystem client or server facilities. LAN Manager Client provides UNIX access to DOS / OS/2 LAN Manager filesystems; it is not a server. ** LAN Manager Server is available separately; it is not a client and the client portion of ODT cannot coexist in a system with LAN Man Server. PC-Interface server interfaces to Locus PC-Interface clients for DOS. There is a Locus PCI product for the Mac; a separate server product from Locus is required to interface to that. ADD-ONS: There are piles of them. I was most impressed by the docs for the CodeView debugger and MASM assembler, but the presence of ISAM support would probably be more significant to the ordinary commercial user. Development systems: UNIX development system includes compiler, tools, base UNIX libraries. ODT development system (which is for ODT, OSNS or OSES) provides that plus libraries for X, Motif, TCP, NFS, LAN manager, IPX/SPX, PC/Interface, and the "Software Mastering Toolkit" for producing installable distributions of your code. SCO now has an Intel Optimizing C Compiler package, a compiler from Intel which understands 486 and Pentium CPU pipeline behavior and produces code optimized for those processors. The stock USG UNIX compiler (but not the stock include files and libraries) is also included. The SCO C compiler has support for cross-compilation to DOS and OS/2. TCP, NFS and Merge are all available as add-ons to the base UNIX product (but pricing is more favorable in the above bundles). LAN Manager Server is available, provides file service to DOS, OS/2, Windows LAN Manager clients. VP/ix (alternative DOS compatibility service) is available. MPX: provides support for multiprocessor 386/486/Pentium machines with up to 30 processors (though I've not seen a live machine with more than 8 -- that waits on the hardware designers). SCO bundles with X also include 18 clients (what in marketingese are called ``personal productivity and groupware accessories and controls'') which include: mail, help, edit, paint, term, print, login, clock, color, session, mouse, lock, and admin (official names all prepended with "SCO") as well as DOS, load, and calculator clients. (The supplied clients have changed a bit for 3.0; I don't have details yet.) SUPPORT: SCO accepts software problem reports from anyone, whether or not they have a support contract (email to support@sco.com). If you don't have a support contract, don't count on getting a reply acknowledging the report. Starting with the new releases, there is no warranty support period. Defective media etc. are warranted; but if you want to talk to someone on the phone about technical issues, you pay. My source thinks, but is not really sure, that you can still get questions handled via Internet mail or the sosco BBS system for a limited time, either 30 or 60 days. Support contracts are available for various periods and with various levels of support. SCO has BBS coverage and a local support operation in the UK as well as the US; BBS coverage only Germany. Local support is, in theory, to be provided by distributors. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. SCO provides a Hardware Compatibility Guide with its software. COMMENTS: The docs are impressive; you could get a hernia trying to lift them all. TECHNICAL NOTES: There's an `MPX' kernel available from SCO that supports multiprocessing. Though this is a 3.2 kernel, SCO has added support for SVr4-like symbolic links and long filenames to Version 4. SCO has a standard driver announcement protocol which allows the utility hwconfig(C) to print out detailed configuration info on hardware attached to the machine. SCO's cross-development and DOS emulation support is unusually rich. It includes lots of system utilities for I/O with a DOS filesystem, as well as cross-development libraries and tools in the Development System. Microsoft Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.0 applications are supported (in real mode), and Windows 3.1 and applications in "standard" mode (which means the Windows kernel runs in '286 protected mode). Graphical MS-DOS applications are supported in CGA graphics mode within an X window, and VGA graphics are supported in full-screen mode. The SCO install process auto-configures a proper set of drivers for your configuration based on what it finds by polling the hardware. KNOWN BUGS SCO tar(1) chokes horribly on long filenames and symbolic links. This has been fixed in the MSv4.2 maintenance supplement. SCO tar also fails to back up empty directories. SCO provides "pax" (Portable Archive Exchange) which does what you expect. Petri Wessman has reported that SCO 3.2.4 sometimes gets into a state in which exec(2) succeeds called from a binary but exec reliably fails called from a shell. WHAT THE USERS SAY: XENIX is the UNIX port hackers love to hate, but at 70% of the market SCO must be doing something right. In general, SCO UNIX and XENIX are reputed to be a very polished and stable systems. Unfortunately, they also drive developers crazy because of numerous tiny and undocumented divergences between the SCO way and the USG-based releases. REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: The SCO support system is heavily bureaucratized and prone to thrash when processing questions of unusual depth or scope. While probably adequate for the random business luser, hackers are likely to find the contortions required to get to a master-level developer very frustrating. SCO in general has the fairly serious case of corporatitis you'd predict from their relatively large size --- no-comment policies and compartmentalization out the wazoo. On the other hand, they sent me an unsolicited free copy, and I got huge amounts of useful technical and hardware-compatibility info "unofficially" from SCOer Bela Lubkin . Gee. Maybe I should flame vendors more often... :-) NAME: BSD/386 VENDOR: Berkeley Software Design, Inc. 3110 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 580 Falls Church, VA 22042 USA (800)-800-4BSD -- info & orders 703 204 8086 - Information/vox 703 204 8087 - Information/fax (719)-593-9445 - Rob Kolstad in Colorado Springs bsdi-info@bsdi.com SOFTWARE OPTIONS: None. You get an unlimited user license, binaries *and sources* for the entire system (this includes X11R5 and full BSD networking sources with both Internet and GOSIP OSI protocol stacks). What more could you want? Note that BSDI sells ``binary right to use licenses'' -- for additional binaries at your site for $200. Likewise, if you're a 3rd party software dude looking for a delivery platform, redistribution of binaries for turnkey systems starts at $200. Quantity discounts are available for both these schemes. SUPPORT: The purchase price include 60 days of phone support. A telephone-support contract is $595 per year; email-only support with upgrades is $295/year; upgrade only is $195/year (+$50 each for QIC-tape installations, as opposed to CD-ROM). Alternatively, you can buy phone support at $20 per 12 minutes. There is a support email list. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the appendix for details. New drivers are being added all the time. KNOWN BUGS: The Perl has a bug that prevents suid Perl scripts from executing correctly. There is, at present, no facility for incremental installation of upgrades (they've budgeted time to do one after 1.1 comes out). Basically, you have to back up /etc and /var and then hand-patch your changes back in after re-installing the OS. In 1.0. the ttyname(3) call was unreliable, sometimes returning NULL when it shouldn't have. I don't yet know whether this has been fixed in 1.1. TECHNICAL NOTES: This version is *not* based even in part on USG code and has no AT&T or USG license restrictions. Rather, it derives from Berkeley UNIX (the CSRG Networking 2 release, somewhere between 4.3 and 4.4). Now that the lawsuit by USL has been settled, they plan to go to BSD 4.4 as a code base. Many of the BSD/386 tools, including the compiler, are GNU code. They supply two X servers; one, with source, is stock X11R5; the other is the high-quality X/Inside server (formerly the SGCS server). This system's libraries, header files and utilities conform to X3J11, POSIX 1003.1 and POSIX 1003.2 standards. POSIX Certification was scheduled for late 1993, I don't know if it's been done yet. I can say that I have moved some very serious code (involving things like tty manipulation and process control) between SVr4 and BSD/386 (both using -D_POSIX_SOURCE) with no source changes at all. The BSDI people are cooperating with the NetBSD and FreeBSD development efforts. Areas where they've exchanged code include the MS-DOS filesystem support and device driver kernel interfaces. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Guy Dawson writes: "I've been using BSD/386 since July 92 and an *REALLY* happy with it. The system is complete - a full development environment. Getting the system is a great win. It's easy to install the components you want and to add/remove components later. Mount the cd and copy the files from the CD. The CD distribution is in ISO9660 format with Rock Ridge extensions. BSD/386 will mount both standard ISO9660 CDs and those with RR extensions. Installing the system from a CD-ROM is easy. I followed the BSDI guide line when configuring the system h/w and had no problems. It was as easy as DOS or Windows. My system is made up of a cheap motherboard and I/O cards - except for the SCSI controller and video card (Adaptec and Orchid). There are also other cards used by DOS/Windows in the machine that BSD/386 does not know about and does not get tripped up by them. They also supply a boot manager so that you can run multiple OSs. My system currently boots off an IDE drvice which has a 109Mb DOS partition and a 11MB BSD/386 /root filesystem. When BSD/386 boots it mounts the rest of the operation system from a SCSI disk. I've also connected the system into TCP/IP networks and interoperated with Suns and a VAX runinng TCP/IP on VMS. The system also serves as an NFS server to Unix boxes and PCs running PC-TCP." Randall Atkinson writes "BSDI is the ONLY platform to use for folks doing work in networking and protocol development. Lots of folks who write network code for your favourite workstation vendor are BSDI users and hang out on the "bsdi-users" list. Also, free support via the "bsdi-users" list from BSDI staffers has been outstanding. Several of the next-generation IP developer groups are working from BSDI systems because they are so cheap and easy to develop on. Note also that OpenLook sources can be ftp'd from export.lcs.mit.edu and installed on your BSDI machine at no cost, so OL is available though you can't purchase it. BSDI systems are easy to port to because most code on the net runs on BSD systems out of the box. BSDI bootstrapped the most easily of any UNIX source distribution that I've ever worked with (and I recall PDP-11 days). I have it running on a CompuAdd 466T and just inserted the boot floppy, powered up the machine, and ran the commands printed on the supplied instructions. It worked right out of the box the first time. The X11 autoconfiguration tool is especially nice." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: Definitely the way to go if you're hacking TCP/IP, SLIP, PPP, or any other kind of networking software. I've used it as a platform to write a multi-user UNIX BBS, and found that, using -DPOSIX_SOURCE, I could write stuff under SVr4, download it without even makefile changes, compile it and have it run. I do, however, strongly recommend throwing away the losing BSD curses library and replacing it with ncurses from the Linux distribution. NAME: NEXTSTEP 3.1 VENDOR: NeXT Computer, Inc 900 Chesapeake Drive Redwood City, CA 19465 (415)-366-0900 SOFTWARE OPTIONS: You can buy either bare NEXTSTEP 3.1, or NEXTSTEP Developer 3.1. SUPPORT: No data yet. FUTURE PLANS: 32-bit color is planned for a future release. Present 486 versions support only 16-bit color, 8-bit greyscale, or 2-bit greyscale. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY TABLES. NEXTSTEP requires a 486 processor and a PostScript-capable printer. WHAT THE USERS SAY: I have no user feedback on this system yet. REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: This is Steve Jobs's second enfant terrible --- the Macintosh of the UNIX world, helped by an ultra-spiffy user interface and OO programming model and hurt by some technical choices that take it out of the mainstream. If you think Objective C and Display PostScript are better choices than C++ and X, this is the OS for you. IMHO, Objective C is a huge lose, but DPS may be a win if you're not worried about portability. NAME: Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X (LGX) VENDOR: (Linux is a freeware product, with sources and kernel and dizzying combinations of add-ons available via FTP on Internet. This entry is based on the low-cost commercial LGX distribution from Yggdrasil, which adds GNU and Xfree86.) Yggdrasil Computing, Inc. Post Office Box 8418 Berkeley, CA 94707-8418 (510)-526-7531 vox (510)-528-8508 fax yggdrasil@netcom.com USENETter Adam J. Richter formed Yggdrasil Computing Inc. to distribute a Linux-based USG-free UNIX clone on CD-ROM. He writes "The alpha release has been shipping since December 8th [1992]. The beta release is shipping and the first production release should ship in late March." For more info, check out the anonymous FTP area in netcom.com:~ftp/pub/yggdrasil. SOFTWARE OPTIONS: The Yggdrasil base product is a CD-ROM including: * The Linux 0.99.4 and 0.99.5 kernels. * An installation script. * TCP/IP and XFree86 X11R5 support. * MPEG full-motion video player for X. * Ghostscript (GNU freeware PostScript interpreter/previewer). * TeX, groff (GNU freeware nroff clone). * Tcl, Tk and Wish for rapid prototyping. * GNU C, C++, gdb, f2c, bison, flex, make, emacs, elvis (vi clone). * System V shared memory and IPC. * BSD-like file system with flexnames, symbolic links and FIFOs. * An ISO9660 CD-ROM filesystem with Rock Ridge extensions. * a XENIX-compatible file system. * a DOS filesystem and DOS emulator. * kermit and Z-modem telecommunications. * Taylor UUCP 1.3. The production CD-ROM is $60. ADD-ONS: Yggdrasil has a policy of filling the unused space on the CD-ROM with a "Chef's Surprise" assortment of goodies. On the beta release CD-ROM, this consists of the X11R5 contrib director plus the Andrew 5.1 GUI source tree. On the production release, it will probably be a dump of a major Linux archive site. SUPPORT: If you need to ask, don't use this software. Linux is user-supported freeware; the only way to get support is to watch the net (especially the comp.os.linux newsgroup) and track the frequent new releases from Linus Torvalds and friends. This os actually better support than a lot of vendors offer. If you want to get actively involved, join the linux-activists mailing list; to subscribe, mail to "linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi". Up-to-the minute info is also available by fingering torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi. Also, watch the Linux FAQ in news.answers. The command set is basically the GNU toolkit, so it's maintained by FSF. FUTURE PLANS: Linux is now in late beta. Linus Torvalds is concentrating on kernel development; many other people are working on tools. Future plans include improved TCP/IP (ftp, telnet), more tape drivers, a compressed file system, and the ability to run Xenix binaries. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the Appendix for details. TECHNICAL NOTES: Complete sources for everything are included! Linux claims to be "mostly" POSIX, System V and BSD-conformant (with the emphasis on POSIX). POSIX job control is supported. The buzz is that it's pretty easy to port stuff from other UNIXes; this is supported by the presence of the GNU toolset and lots of other freeware. Linux's X is Xfree86 (see below). You can actually boot and run LGX using a supplied floppy and the CD, without touching your hard drive. This is useful for evaluating the system. COMMENTS: Linux seems now to be the leading freeware UNIX, having overtaken 386BSD by virtue of a very large and active development community. It's changing fast enough that this entry is likely to be chronically behind the facts. WHAT THE USERS SAY: Tune into comp.os.linux for lots of feedback. See the WHAT THE USERS SAY section for SLS. REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: If the idea of a free UNIX collectively developed by the net turns you on, this (or SLS) is the system to get involved with. KNOWN BUGS: If you're using an Ultrastor 14F controller, you must hard-reset the machine when you reboot; otherwise it won't be detected. If you set your machine name to something longer than 14 characters, login will not work. This appears to be due to a C library bug. The S3 X server has problems reading the config files generated by the X configuration script. Some working S3 config files are included. NAME SLS Linux VENDOR: (Linux is a freeware product, with sources and kernel and dizzying combinations of add-ons available via FTP on Internet. This entry is based on the free and low-cost commercial SLS distribution from Soft Landing Software, which adds GNU and Xfree86.) Softlanding Software 910 Lodge Ave. Victoria, B.C., Canada V8X-3A8 (604) 360-0188, FAX (604) 385-1292 Soft Landing Software is the service mark of Peter McDonald. "See Softlanding for a gentle touch down from a DOS bailout." SOFTWARE OPTIONS: Here are the package options for the floppy distribution. The floppy SLS is primarily a binary distribution, but includes kernel and some other sources. NAME #DISKS SERIES 5 1/4 DISKS 3 1/2 DISKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TINY 4 a US $29.00 (CDN $33.00) US $33.00 (CDN $37.00) BASE 17 a,b,c,d,s US $74.50 (CDN $91.50) US $91.50 (CDN $108.50) MAIN 24 a,b,c,x US $99.00 (CDN $123.00) US $123.00 (CDN $147.00) FULL 30 a,b,c,x,d,s,t US $120.00 (CDN $150.00) US $150.00 (CDN $180.00) a1-aN: The minimal base system b1-bN: Base system extras, like man pages, emacs etc. c1-cN: The compiler(s), gcc/g++/p2c/f2c x1-xN: The X-windows distribution (+idraw and doc) t1-tN: TeX (document processing) s1-sN: Source code for critical system components d1-dN: Documentation for various things The CD-ROM and tape media include the full distribution. The tape is $150. The SLS CDROM is $99 for the single, or $199 for the Quarterly subscription. Add $15 for S&H (all prices in US funds). It contains: - the SLS 1.02 packages (features 99p9 kernel and libc 4.3.3) - SLS 1.02 unpacked and pre-installed - the SLS source tree - Werner's Inherited File System (IFS) - mit and contrib X dists - misc X windows srcs (like interviews and the TK X tool kit) - sources for non-SLS things (like snd-kit and rlab) - unsupported Linux patches (like Xenix fs and kdebug) - two boot disks (3 & 5) - at least 1 patch floppy (contains updates) - the booklet, Using SLS The SLS distribution is also available via FTP. Because Softlanding makes it freely available on the net, SLS is the most widely used Linux system. ADD-ONS: SLS contains 400-500 utilities designed to provide a relatively complete computer operating system for the sophisticated user. It includes programs for compression, text processing, communications, Xwindowing system, program development (Assembler, C, C++, Fortran, Pascal, Lisp, and Perl), mail, spreadsheets, and word-processing. Also supported are DOS files, a DOS emulator, SCSI, CDROMs, and TCP/IP. A 387 coprocessor is emulated by the kernel if you don't have one. Full source code for the kernel is also provided with SLS. SLS fills the unused space on its CD-ROM and tape with a "Chef's Surprise" assortment of freeware goodies in source form. The MIT X Xontrib tree is likely to feature prominently. SUPPORT: SLS, unlike LGX, offers actual support in the commercial fashion. Single- user support is $100 per year; group support, primarily for resellers and corporate sites is $1000.00 per year. FUTURE PLANS: See the FUTURE PLANS section of LGX. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY: See the 'L' column in the hardware compatibility tables. COMMENTS: Linux seems now to be the leading freeware UNIX, having overtaken 386BSD by virtue of a very large and active development community. It's changing fast enough that this entry is likely to be chronically behind the facts. TECHNICAL NOTES: SLS currently runs ELF binaries. A Windows emulator is in ALPHA. COFF is not supported (yet). WHAT THE USERS SAY: Tune into comp.os.linux for lots of feedback. Andries Brouwer writes: "I bought a PC and 30 diskettes, ftp'ed the SLS distribution, booted and installed, and everything worked fine from the very first moment, with the single exception of Xfree 1.2 that didn't like my ET4000/W32 card. Two weeks later Xfree 1.3 came along, and now X works fine as well. (However, now I have to wrestle with SLIP - that code is very buggy.) In short: apart from the networking stuff: a very complete system, and everything for free." REVIEWER'S IMPRESSIONS: If the idea of a free UNIX collectively developed by the net turns you on, this (or LGX) is the system to get involved with. KNOWN BUGS: See the KNOWN BUGS section under LGX. V. UPCOMING PORTS, FREEWARE VERSIONS, AND CLONES. There's a free X distribution that's worth checking out in lieu of the vendor-maintained ports. It's called XFree86, and it's a souped-up version of the 1.2 X386 server supported for SVr4, 386BSD and Linux. It supports the following chipsets: ET4000 (Tseng) ET3000 (Tseng) PVGA1 (Paradise) WD90Cxx (Western Digital - Paradise PVGA1 Supersets) GVGA (Genoa) TVGA8900C (Trident) ATI18800,28800 (ATI SVGA - not 8514!) The Xfree maintainers recommend ET4000-based boards, except for recent Diamond models (Diamond won't give them interfacing info). There is no support for S3, ATI 8514 or TIGA chipsets. Source patches based on X11R5 PL17, from MIT, are available via anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (under /contrib/XFree86) and at various other sites; binaries for various OSs are also widely available (consult the archie service on Internet, using the search string "xfree" to find a site near you). XFree86 is known to work under all the commercial ports covered above; also under Linux and 386BSD. The maintainers believe it will fly on any ISA/EISA clone box running SVr4. Send email to David Wexelblat or to xfree86@physics.su.oz.au for further information. There are three other commercial SVr4 UNIX ports on the market for which I do not yet have detailed information. I hope to cover them in future issues. Solaris 2.1: Sun's port for 386/486 machines, just released. I hope to add a full vendor report on this nextish. PromoX UNIX: This is said to be a bare-bones port by an outfit that mainly sells hardware. The price advertised is $649 for a complete 2-user + devtools system. PromoX Systems 1050 East Duane Avenue, Suite B Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Tel: (408) 733-2966 Email: promox@cup.portal.com SORIX: This is a SVR4 UNIX port enhanced for real-time work, offered by Siemens AG. Siemens AG AUT 189 Gleiwitzerstr. 555 8500 Nuremberg 1 Tel: 0911/895-2203 I don't yet know if this version is going to be sold in the US. In the info I have, prices are quoted in Deutschmarks. There are some freeware alternative UNIXes available for the 386/486. None of these are yet complete and mature hacking environments, but they show promise (and require much less in minimum hardware to run than most of the commercial versions). They are: 386BSD: Under development by Bill & Lynne Jolitz & friends (this is the same 386BSD project described in Dr. Dobbs' Journal some time back). This OS is based on the NET/2 tape from Berkeley, resembling the commercial BSD/386 release described above, and like it is distributed with full source. The aim is to produce a full POSIX-compliant freeware BSD UNIX. Version 0.1 is now out, including FP emulation, SCSI support, coexistence with DOS, and many more new features. Passwording has to be acquired separately due to US export regulations, but the system is otherwise fairly complete; I have seen it run. There's a lot of traffic in comp.os.386bsd about this project. Hurd: This is the long-awaited and semi-mythical GNU kernel. It's being worked on by the Free Software Foundation (the people who brought you emacs, gcc, gdb and the rest of the GNU tool suite) but it's not ready for prime time yet. It's said to be a set of processes layered over a Mach 3.0 kernel. The 386BSD and Linux developments both lean heavily on GNU tools. There is one other not-quite-freeware (cheapware?) product that deserves a mention: Minix: This is a roughly V7-compatible UNIX clone for Intel boxes, sold with source by Prentice-Hall for $169 (there's an associated book for a few bucks more). It's really designed to run in 16-bit mode on 8086 and 286 machines, though the UK's MINIX center offers a 32-bit kernel. UUCP and netnews clones are available as freeware but not supplied with the base system. A large international community is involved in improving Minix; see comp.os.minix on USENET for details. These freeware and "cheapware" products exert valuable pressure on the commercial vendors. Someday, they may even force Novell to unlock source to stay competitive... Finally, there is a class of commercial UNIX clones that claim to emulate UNIX or improve on it without being derived from AT&T/USG source. The major products of this kind for 80x86 machines seem to be Coherent, QNX and LynxOS. The following information about these has been supplied by various USENETters: COHERENT is a small-kernel UNIX-compatible multi-user, multi-tasking development O/S for $99.95 that uses less than 14Mb of disk space, runs on most 286-386-486 CPU systems, has a (pre-ANSI) C compiler and over 230 UNIX commands including text processing, program development, administrative and maintenance functions. The GNU tools are available as pre-compiled binaries and source from MWC. Coherent resides on a partition separate from DOS and can access the DOS file system with the DOS command. It has no network or Xwindows support, but netnews has been ported and it has its own newsgroup, comp.os.coherent. It is fully documented with both a comprehensive 1200 page manual and an on-line manual. Mark Williams Company provides excellent support including a UUCP access BBS and has just announced Release 4.0, the 386 version of COHERENT (which removed the 64K-address-space limit on the compiler). A big selling point of this system is its minimal HW requirements --- only 1MB of memory, a 10MB root partition, and monochrome (or better) monitor. As there's no FPU code yet, there's no point in buying a 486 for this puppy. QNX is a POSIX-compliant microkernel OS with real-time capability, targeted to mission critical, performance sensitive applications like factory automation, process control, financial transaction processing, and instrumentation. They claim an installed base of over 200K systems worldwide. The microkernel is only 7K and implements a message-passing model; other pieces can loaded in at runtime, supporting anything from a small real-time executive up to a full multi-user time-sharing system (including transparent DOS emulation supporting Windows 3.1 in protected mode). QNX networking supports standard protocol suites, but uses very fast, lightweight protocols for QNX-to-QNX node communications; QNX machines on a network can be treated for most purposes as a single large multiprocessor, and the OS itself can be distributed across multiple nodes. Here is contact information for the vendor: Quantum Software Systems Quantum Software Systems 175 Terrence Matthews Cr. Westendstr.19 6000 Frankfurt Kanata, Ontario K2M 1W8 am main 1 Canada Germany voice: (613) 591-0931 x111 (voice) voice: 49 69 97546156 fax: (613) 591-3579 (fax) fax: 49 69 97546110 usenet: stuartr@qnx.com QNX support is offered via voice and FAX hotline and a BBS. There is also a newsletter and an annual international users' conference. LynxOS is a 386 UNIX specialized for real-time work, available from Lynx Real-Time Systems Inc. of Los Gatos, California. It includes TCP/IP, NFS, X, etc. Most of the development tools are GNU. The kernel is pre-emptable and supports threads and dynamically-loaded device drivers. VI. HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY TABLES These tables summarize vendor claims and user reports on which hardware will work with which port. The Linux info is partly from the Yggdrasil LGX distribution notes, partly from Garret Goebel's Linux Hardware Compatibility List; it should apply to Yggdrasil, Linux, and all other packagings of Linux. To save space in the tables below, we use the following *one-letter* abbreviations for the OS ports: V Univel UnixWare 4.2 E ESIX System V Release 4.0.4 M Micro Station Technology SVr4 UNIX P Microport System V/4 version 4 U UHC Version 4.0.3.6 S SCO UNIX version 3.2v4 B BSD/386 1.1 N NEXTSTEP L Linux (includes LGX and SLS) A `c' indicates that the hardware is claimed to work in vendor literature. A `y' indicates that this has been verified by a user report. A 'v' indicates that the board vendor supplies a driver or server. A `.' indicates that whether this combination works is unknown. An `n' indicates that the vendor advises that the combination won't work. A `*' points you at footnote info. A blank column indicates that I have received no vendor info on the hardware category in question. The following general caveats apply: * All ports support EGA, VGA, CGA and monochrome text displays, except NExtStep which requires VGA or better and only does 8-bit grey scale on ISA VGA boards.. * All ports support generic ISA serial-port cards based on the 8250 or 16450 UART. According to the vendors, the asy drivers on Esix, Microport, and BSD/386 support the extended FIFO on the NS16550AFN UART chip. Indeed, Dell tech support once told me this feature was present in the base USG code. UHC says its 4.0.4 drivers will talk to the 16550s. SCO has supported the 16550 since 3.2.2. * All versions support parallel ports. * All versions support standard 3.5" and 5.25" floppy drives. * I have not bothered listing ordinary ST-506/IDE/RLL drives, though lists of them are given in vendor literature. This is a very mature commodity technology; anything you buy should work with one of the supported controllers unless it's defective. * Vendors' supported hardware lists are not models of clarity. Some items may be listed under a couple of different names because I don't know that they're actually the same beast. I have been very careful not to make assumptions where I am ignorant; thus, some hardware may appear less widely supported than it actually is. * These tables are grossly incomplete. Also, be aware that there is a fundamental design problem in the ISA architecture that can cause 8-bit boards used in a system with 16-bit boards to flake out even if they're actually compatible. Jeremy Chatfield (formerly of Dell and Information Foundation) describes it this way: "We've seen (and fixed) this with several card combinations. If you have an 8 bit card and a 16 bit card in the same address range, then the address decoding on the ISA bus will find that the 128KB range includes a 16 bit card. It therefore programs itself for 16 bit I/O. If you then do I/O with the 8 bit card, every other data byte is garbage. You will also have a reboot problem, because the 16 bit card usually starts in 8 bit mode and has to be switched to 16 bit mode. If the switch back to 8 bit mode is not made, and the address range is the c0000-d0000 range, close to the VGA BIOS, the VGA BIOS accesses are screwed, because they are performed in 16 bit mode because of the above PC H/W architectural problem. We include a deinit sequence in all the 16 bit device drivers that causes a shutdown to reset the accesses to the safer 8 bit mode. Of course, after a panic, the machine still has boards set up in 16 bit mode, so you might observe the problem then. This affects *all* PC OS's. I have seen cases where DOS failed to reboot because of the same nonsense (network card in 16 bit mode in same address region as VGA BIOS). Clever programming can resolve in several ways." All the SVr4 systems inherit support for a fairly wide range of hardware from the base USG code; SCO UNIXes from 3.2.2 up, ODT, BSDI, NEXTSTEP, and Linux also support all these devices: * All PC disk controllers (ESDI, IDE, ST-506 in MFM and RLL formats). * The Adaptec 1542B SCSI adapter. Note: you'll have to jumper your SCSI devices to fixed IDs during installation on most of these. For Linux you need to leave BIOS initialization on. * Western Digital's 8013EBT Ethernet card, and its equivalents the WD8003 and WD8013. SVr4.0.4 and Linux add the 3Com 3C503. * VGA adapters in 640x480 by 16 color mode. (NEXTSTEP only supports 8-bit greyscale on these). * "C" protocol serial mice like the Series 7 and Series 9 from Logitech and the PC-3 mouse from Mouse Systems (however, we've had one report of an ostensible PC-3 clone called the DFI200H not working). All SVr4 4.2 ports inherit support for these additional devices: * "M" and "M+" protocol mice like Microsoft's and the newer Logitechs. * SCSI WORM drives including the Toshiba and Maxtor RXT-800HS. * SCSI Optical Disks: Maxtor Tahiti-I and II, Sony SMOE501 * SCSI CD-ROM drives: Toshiba XM-3201B, NEC CDR-82, Pioneer DRM-600, Sony CDU-8012. * ET3000-based SVGA boards at up to 1024x768x16, WD90C10-based boards at up to 1024x768x16, WD90C11-based boards at up to 1024x768x256. * IBM-compatible Token Ring cards The SCO versions support all these mice and token ring cards. If you can fill in any of the gaps, or convert a `c' to `y', send me email. V E P M U S B N L Systems ------------------------------------------------------------------------ c . c c . . . Acer (all 386/486 models) . . . . . . c Acer 1200 . . . . c . . ACCELL 486/33 ISA and 386/40 ISA . c . . . . . ADDA AD-428P-25, Portable 486/25, 486/33, AD-328D-25 c c c . . . . ALR Business VEISA 386/33-101 c . . c . . . ALR (all 386 and 486 models) . . . . . c . ALR Evolution IV/e EISA VL-bus series, all speeds . . . y . . . applicationDEC 316,316+,325,325C,333,425,433MP c . . c . . . Apricot LS, LS 386SX, XEN-S 386 . . . c y . . Arche 486, Master 486/33 c . c . . . . AST (models not specified) . . . . . c . AST Power Premium EISA machines, all speeds c c c . . . . AST Premium (models not specified) c . . c . . . AST Premium 386,386/33,486/25T*E*,486/33T*E* . . . . . c . AST Premmia 4/d, all speeds c . c c . . . AT&T 6386 machines . . . . . . c Bitwise (model not specified) c . c . . . . Compaq (models not specified) . . . . . . c Compaq Deskpro 386/20 c c c c . . . Compaq DeskPro 386/33. c . . y . . . Compaq DeskPro 486s/20,486/25/486/33L,386/20,386/25 . . . . . c . Compaq L- and M-series EISA machines, all speeds c . . y . . . Compaq Portable III 386, SystemPro c . . c y . . Compaq SLT 386s/20 c . . . y . . CompuAdd 320 c y y y y c . . . CompuAdd Model 333 c . . . y . . CompuAdd 320 . . . . . . c Comtrade (model not specified) . . . . . c . Continental Computer 3800 NExT models . . . . . c . Data General Dasher LE2 EISA c . . c . . . DEC DS486, DECpc 433, DECpc 433T . . . . . c . DEC MTE EISA. all speeds c . . c . . . DECstation 320,325,425 c . c c . . . Dell 310,325,325P,333P,316SX,316LT,320SX,320LT. c . c c . . . Dell 433P,425E,433E,425TE,433TE,4xx[DS]E,486[DP]xx. . . . . . c . Dell L-series ISA, M-series ISA, and 450 DE/2 DGX EISA c . . . y . . DynaMicro 486/33 c . . c . . . EasyData 386 model 333 c . . c . . . Epson Equity 386/20PC,386/25,386SX; Epson PC AX3,AX3/25 . . . . . c . Progression, NX, and Progression NX ISA (all speeds) c c c . . . . Everex (models not specified) c . . y . . . Everex 33,386/20,486,486/33 c c c . . . . Gateway 2000 (models not specified) y . c . y . c Gateway 2000 (486/33 ISA) c . . y . . . . Gateway 2000 486/25 . n . . . . . Gateway 486 VESA . . . . . c . Gateway V-series ISA+VLB, all speeds . . . . . c . GEC Jet F86 (all models) c . . c . . . Groupil Uniprocessor 25MHz Tower c . . c . . . GRiDCase 1530,1550SX . . . . . . c Hewlett-Packard HP QS20 . . . . . c . Hewlett-Packard Vectra U-series, N-series and NI-series c . c . c . . High Definition Systems 486/25 ISA and 386 SX/16 ISA . . . . . . c High Definition Systems 386/33 ISA c y . . . . . High Definition Systems 386/40 ISA . . . . . . c Hi Tech USA 486/33 ISA c . . c . . . HP 486 Vectra series . . . c . . . IBM PS/2 and PS/Valuepoint . . . . . c . IBM ValuePoint 466DX2 /S, /D, and /T models . . . . . . c Insight 486DX/25 . . . . . c . Intel GX Professional c . . c . . . IBC 486 c . . c . . . ITT 486 . . . . . . c Laser 386SX/2E . . . . . c . Lucky Goldstar LG486NX ISA+VLB c . . y . . . Micro Way Number Smasher 486/33 . . . . . . c Microlink 486dx/50 localbus c . . c . . . Mitac 386, MC3100E-02, S500 c . . c . . . Mitsuba 386 c . . c . . . Mitsubishi PC-386 c . . . y . . MORSE PAT 386PX 386/40 c . . . y . . MORSE KP 386T 386/33 . . . . . c . NCR 3333 ISA+VLB c . . c . . . NCR 316,316SX,3386 c . . c . . . NEC 386/20,486/25, BusinessMate and PowerMate c . . y . . . NEC 386/33 BusinessMate . . . . . c . NEC PowerMate Express/e EISA; I-series & Image 466 ISA c . . c . . . Noble 386 c . . c . . . Nokia Alfaskop System 10 m52, m54/55 c . . c . . . Northgate 33 c c c . . . . Northgate 386/33 c . . . . . . Northgate 486/33 c . . c . . . Olivetti 386/486 machines c . . c . . . Olivetti XP-9 . . . . . . c Osborne Computers (Australia) 486/33 EISA c . . y . . . Packard-Bell 386x . . . . . . c PACOMP 486/33 . . . . . . c Paradise (model not specified) c . . c . . . PC Craft PCC 2400 386 c . . c . . . Phillips 386, P3464 486 c c c . . . . Primax (models not specified) c . . c . . . SNI 8800-50, 8810-50, PCD series c . . c . . . Schneider 386 25-340, 386SX System 70 c . . c . . . Siemens Data Systems Model WX200 c . . c . . . Starstation c . . . y . . Tandy 3000 c . . c . . . Tandy 4000 c . . y . . . Tatung Force 386x c . . c . . . Tatung Force TCS-8000 386, TCS-8600 386 c c c . . . . Tangent (models not specified) c y . . . . . Tangent 386/25C c c y . . . . Tangent 433E (486/33 EISA) c . . . y . . Technology Advancement Group EISA 483/33 c c c . . . . Televideo (models not specified) c . . c . . . Televideo 386/25 c . . c . . . Texas Instruments System 1300 c . . . y . . Texas Instruments System 80486/33Mhz c . . c . . . Toshiba T3100,T3200,T5100,T5200,T8500,T8600 . . . . . . c Toshiba 1850 laptop c . . . y . . TPE 486/33 & 486/50 c c c . . . . Twinhead (models not specified) c . . y . . . Twinhead 800 (486/33) . . . . . . c Tyan Pro-EISA, Opti EISA Chip-set c c c . . . . Unisys (models not specified) c . . c . . . Unisys PW2 Series 800/16,800/20,800/25 c . . c . . . Victor 386 25, V486T . . . . . . c PACOMP 486/33 . . . . . . c Vobis Highscreen 486DX/33 c . . c . . . Wyse 386 c . . n . . . Wyse Decision 486/33 (intermittent crashes) c . . c . . . Zenith 386 and 486 machines . . . . . . c Zenon 486/33 Local Bus c . . . y . . Zeos 486DX-50 V E P M U S B N L Motherboards ------------------------------------------------------------------------ c . . . AGI y . y . . A.I.R. 486/33EL w 256K cache . c . . ALR . c . . AMAX . c c . . AMI (model not specified) y c . c AMI Enterprise II (33 & 50) . . . c AMI Series 50 Super Voyager 486/33 DX y . . . Amptron AMD386/40 . . y . Amptron ISA 486DX/33 . c . . ARC . . . c C386 PEAK-DM . c . . Cache Computer (model not specified) . . y . Cache Computer 386-33 . c . . Chips & Technologies chipset . c . . Chips & Technologies 33DX c c . . Club AT . . . c CONTAQ-386 Upgradable System Board . c . . DataExport . c . . Dell . c n . c DTK (model not specified) y . n . . DTK 386/33 . . c . EISA Tech 80386SX MHz . . . . Eteq 386 n . y . . Eteq 486 . . . c ETEQ G486EB . c . . Free Technology (model not specified) . . . . Free Technology 486/33 EISA board . . . . Free Technology 486/50DX . . . c G486PLB . . . c GS3486 y . y . . Gigabyte GA-486US 33MHz 256K Cache . . . c HOT-307H 386-33/40 (OPTI chipset) . . c y . Intel 302 (386/25 + 387) . . y . Intel 403E (486/33 EISA) . . . c ISA486S . . . c M407 PC Chips motherboard . . . c Magitronic/VLSI V386SX-25Mhz . c . . Microlab c c y y c . Micronics 386/25 c c y c . Micronics 486/33 ISA y . . . Micronics 486/33 EISA . . . c Micronics 80486 ASIC EISA . . . c Micronics EISA-II motherboard . c . . Mitac . . . . Modular Circuit Technology 386/SX 16Mhz . . y . . Motherboard Factory 386/40, 486/33 (Northgate's OEM) . . . c MST-386 . . . c MST 486A (Armas Inc. ROC) . c . . Mylex (model not specified) c c . . Mylex MI-386/20 y y y y . c Mylex MAE486/33 . . . y NICE ISA 486SX/33 y . y . y NICE 486DX/50 EISA . c . . OPTI 486 . c . . Orchid . c . . PC-craft . . . c PLB-486/50 . . . c SUPER 486-33C . . . c Symphony 80486 PC/AT chipset . . . c T/B, UNICHIP chipset (works with SCSI) y . y . . TMC Research Corporation PAT38PC 25/386,33/386 y . . . TMC Research Corporation PAT38PX 33/386,40/386 . . . c UMC 80486 . . y . Zida 486DX/50 ISA Notes: * These two tables probably way *understate* the compatibility of most ports. Most ISA or EISA motherboards will work with all of them. However, Jeff Coffler reports: "I couldn't get the Cache Computer CPU board to work at all with Dell UNIX, even though they claimed they work with SCO. Flaky, timing-related failures." * Quote from Kolstad, "The external caches on the most advanced boards are usually not tested well for UNIX-like applications. We see problems occasionally that disappear when the caches are disabled. Once reproducible, the vendors can usually repair the problem." * A source at UHC describes the DTK boards as "dogshit" --- he says they generate a lot of spurious interrupts that DOS is too cretinous to be bothered by but which completely tank UNIX. He says DTK seems uninterested in fixing the problem. Other correspondents confirm that this has been going on for several years. On the other hand, another correspondent says his company has 20 DTK machines running UNIX with no problems. We advise that you actually *see* any DTK board boot UNIX and run for a while before buying. * Dave Johnson reports that since upgrading from a 386 to an Eteq 486, they've had lots of UHC random panics due to page faults in kernel mode. UHC is looking into this. * NeXT doesn't support 16-bit color on ISA machines; if you have one of those, you're limited to 8-bit greyscale. Dell JAWS machines, C&T Wingine, ATI and S3 cards are all supported for 16-bit color if connected through VLB, PCI or EISA. Poor ISA just can't hack the bandwidth requirements for NExT's frame-buffer architecture. V E P M U S B N L Video Cards Max Res ChipSet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . y * . . . . . Appian Rendition GRX 1024x768x256 TIGA34010 . y * . c . . . Appian Rendition II, IIXE 1024x768x256 TIGA34010 . . . . c . . . Appian Rendition III 1280x1024x256 TIGA34020 . . c . . . . . ARC V-16 (Paradise) ???? ???? . . . . c . . . AST motherboard video 1024x768x256 WD90C31 . . . . c . . . AST VGA Plus 800x600x16 WDC c . c c . . . . AT&T VDC 600 (Paradise clone) SVGA ???? c . . . . . . . AT&T VDC400 CGA ??? c . . . . . . . AT&T VDC750 EGA ??? . . c . c . . c ATI Ultra 1024x768x256 Mach 8 . . . . c . . . ATI UltraPlus & UltraPro 1024x768x256 Mach 32 . . . . . . c . ATI UltraPro 1024x768x16 Mach 8 . . c . c . . y ATI Vantage 1024x768x256 Mach 8 . . . . c . . . ATI Wonder SVGA N Wonder y c c n c . . y ATI Wonder+ SVGA N Wonder c . . . c . . . ATI Wonder XL 1024x768x256 ???? . . c c . . . . ATI (type not specified) ???? ???? . . . . . . . . Boca SuperVGA 1024x768 ET4000 . . . . c . . . Bull ProStation 25i 1024x768x16 ???? . . . . c . . . Chips 451 800x600x16 N C&T451 . . . . c . . . Chips 452 1024x768x16 N C&T452 . . . . c . . . Cirrus Logic VGA 6410 800x600x16 ???? . . . . c . . . Cirrus Logic GD542X 1024x768x256 N ???? . . . . . . c . Cirrus Logic Horizon 1024x768x2 ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq Advanced VGA 640x480x256 N ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq AG1024 1024x768x256 ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq LCD VGA 640x480x16g N ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq Plasma 640x400x2 N non-VGA . . . . c . . . Compaq ProLinea 3 1024x768x16 N WD90C11 . . . . c . . . Compaq ProLinea 4 1024x768x256 N ET4000 . . . . c . . . Compaq ProSignia 1024x768x16 N WD90C11 . . . . c . c . Compaq QVision 1024x768x256 N ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq VGC 640x480x16 N ???? . . . . c . . . Compaq VGC 132 800x600x16 N ???? . . . . . . . c Compuadd Hi-Rez card w/1meg 1024x768 ET4000 . . . . c . . . Cornerstone SinglePage 1008x768x2 ???? . . . . c . . . Cornerstone PC1280 1280x960x2 ???? . . . . c . . . Cornerstone DualPage 1600x1280x2 ???? . . . . c . . . Cornerstone DualPage 150 2048x1538x2 ???? . . . . c . . . DEC 433w 1280x1024x256 TMS34020 . . . . c . . . DEC motherboard video 1024x768x256 N WD90C30 . . . . c . . . Dell motherboard video 1024x768x256 WD90C31 . . . . c . c . Dell PoerLine 450 DX "Jaws" 1280x1024x256 ???? c . . c . . . . Dell VGA 1024x768 ???? c c c y c . . c Diamond SpeedStar 1024x768x256 ET4000 . . . . c . . c Diamond Stealth 1280x1024x16 S3 c . . . * . . c Eizo MD-B07, MD-B10, Extra/EM 1024x768 ET3000 c . . . . . . y ELSA WINNER 1280x1024 82C480 . c . . . . . . Everex ViewPoint VRAM SVGA+ ???? . c . . . . . . Everex ViewPoint True Color SVGA+ ???? . c . . . . . . Everex UltraGraphics II EV-236 1664x1200 mono . . . . . . . . Fastwrite VGA 800x600 ???? c . . . . . . . Genoa SuperEGA HiRes 1024x768 ???? c . . . . . . . Genoa 5200 1024x768 ???? c c c c c . . c Genoa 5300/5400 superVGA SVGA N ???? . . c . c . . c Genoa 6000, 6400 SVGA N ???? . . . . c . . . Genoa 7000 SVGA N ???? . . . . c . . . Grid 1530 laptop 640x400x2 CGA-like . c c . y . . . Hercules monographics display 720x348 mono . . . . c . . . HP UltraVGA 1280x1024x16 S3 . . . . c . . . IBM 8514/A 1024x768x256 8514/A . . . . c . . . IBM VGA VGA VGA . . . . c . . . IBM XGA 1024x768x256 XGA . . . . c . . . IBM XGA-2 1024x768x256 XGA-2 . . . . c . . . Imagraph ITX 1280x1024x256 TMS34020 . . . . c . . . Intel motherboard video 1024x768x256 N WD90C3x . . . . c . . . Matrox MWIN1280 1280x1024x256 N 8514 . . . . c . . . Matrox PG-1281-CV 1024x768x256 ???? . . . . c . . . Matrox PG-1281 1280x1024x256 ???? . . . . c . . . Matrox PG-1281/s 1280x1024x16g ???? . c . . . . . . MaxLogic SVGA ???? v . . . c . . . Microfield T8 1280x1024 TIGA34020 v . c . c . . . Microfield V8 1280x1024 ???? . . . . c . . . Microfield I8 1280x1024x256 TMS34020 v . . . . . . . Microfield X-8 1280x1024 ???? . . . . c . . . Micronics MVC 1280x1024x256 82C41 . . . . c . . . Miro Magic 1280x1024x256 N 82C48 c . . . . . . . Miro Magic Plus 1280x1024x256 N 82C481 c . . . . . . . Miro Crystal 8.24 1280x1024x256 N 82C481 c . . . . . . . Miro Crystal 4.16 1024x768x256 N 82C481 . . * . . . . . Mylex GXE (EISA) 1280x1024 TIGA34020 c . . . . . . . NCR 77C22 1024x768x16 77C22 c . . . . . . . NCR 77C22E 1024x768x256 77C22E . . . . . . . y Nth Engine/150 1280x1024 82C480 . . . . c . . . Number Nine GXi 1280x1024x256 N 34020 . c . . . . . . Oak Technology OTI-067 1024x768x256 ???? . . . y c . . . Oak Technologies Oak 077 1024x768x256 Oak 077 . . . . c . . . Olivetti EVC-1 (EISA) 1024x768x256 82c452 . . . . c . . . Olivetti LSX50X5 1024x768x256 N ET4000 . . . . c . . . Olivetti m300-28 1024x768x16 N OTI-067 . . . . c . . . Olivetti m300-30 1024x768x256 N WD90C31 . . . . c . . . Olivetti m300-40/m388-25/m400-* 1024x768x16 N C&T452A . . . . c . . . Olivetti m400-60 1024x768x256 N Mach 8 . . . . c . . . Olivetti m480-xx 1024x768x16 N C&T453 . . . . c . . . Olivetti OVC 640x480x16 N ???? . . . . . . . c Optima Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000 . . . . c . . . Orchid Designer SVGA ET3000 . . . . c . . c Orchid Fahrenheit 1280x1024x16 S3 . . . . c . . . Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 Plus/VA 1280x1024x16 S3 . y c c c . . c Orchid ProDesigner 800x600 ET3000 c y y . c . . y Orchid ProDesigner II/1024 1024x768 N ET4000 . . . . c . . . Orchid ProDesigner II/e 800x600x256 N ET4000 c * y . c . . y Orchid ProDesigner IIs 1024x768 N ET4000 c . . . c . . . Paradise VGA Plus VGA PVGA1A . c c c . . . c Paradise VGA Professional VGA PVGA1A . . c . c . . c Paradise VGA 1024 SVGA WD90C00 . . . . c . . . Paradise 8514/A SVGA+ 8514/A v . . . c . . y PixelWorksWhirlWin 1280x1024 82C480 c . . . . . . . PerfectView SVGA ???? . . . . c . . . QuadRAM QuadVGA SVGA ???? . . c c . . . . Qume Crystal 1024x768 T4000 . . . . c . . . Renaissance Rendition II 1024x768 TMS34020 . y c . y . . c Sigma Legend 1024x768x356 N ET4000 c . c c . . . . Sigma VGA/H 800x600 ???? c c c c c . . . STB EM-16 VGA, EM-16+ VGA SVGA ET3000 c . . . c . . . STB Extra-EM SVGA ET3000 c c c . . . . c STB PowerGraph w/1meg 1024x768x256 ET4000 . . . . c . . . STB Wind/X (BIOS 1.0) 1024x768x16 S3 . . . . c . . . STB Wind/X (BIOS 1.1) 1280x1024x16 S3 . . . . . . . c Swan SVGA with VCO chip 1024x768 ET4000 c . . . . . . . Tecmar VGA VGA Et3000 c c . . c . . . Tecmar VGA AD SVGA ET3000 . . . . c . . . Toshiba Grid 758 & 1500 laptop 640x400x2 CGA-like . . . . . . . c TRICOM Mega/1024 1024x768 ET4000 . . c . c . . . Trident SuperVGA ???? T880 c . . . c . . c Trident TVGA 8900 1024x768x256 T8900 . . . . c . . . Trident Impact I & III 1024x768x256 T8900 . . . . c . . . Tseng Labs ET3000 VGA 1024x768x16 T3000 c . c c c . c . Tseng Labs ET4000 VGA 1024x768x256 T4000 . c . . . . . . Vectrix VX1024 (TI-34010) 1024x768 ???? c . . . . . . . Vega VGA 800x600 ???? . . . . c . . . Verticom MX/AT 800x600 ???? . . . . c . . . Video Dynamics SprintGXU 1280x1024x16 S3 . . . . c . . . Western Digital WD90C11 1024x768x16 N WD90C11 . . . . c . . . Western Digital WD90C30 1024x768x256 N WD90C30 . . . . c . . . Western Digital WD90C31 1024x768x256 N WD90C31 . c c c c . . . Video7 FastWrite VGA 800x600 x2, x16 ???? c . c c c . . . Video7 VRAM VGA 1024x768 Video7 . . c c c . . . Video7 VRAM II VGA SVGA Video7 . . c c c . . . Video7 VEGA EGA 640x380 Video7 . . . . c . . . Video7 VGA1024i SVGA Video7 . . . . c . . . Zenith/Bull motherboard video 1024x768x256 N WD90C3x . . . . c . . . Zenith WAM 1024x768x256 N 8514/A In this table, an `SVGA' resolution code signifies the following resolutions: 1024x768 at 2 and 16 colors, 800x600 at 2, 16, 256 colors, and 640x480 at 2, 16, 256 colors. SVGA+ adds 1280x1024 at 2 or 16 colors. Some non-interlace boards are marked with N. Greyscale boards are marked with a `g' suffix'. Caveats in interpreting the above table: * All super-VGA cards will work at VGA resolutions and below (that is, resolu- tions up to 640x480 in 16 colors). * Because color is of secondary importance for most UNIX applications, I list only the highest dot-density resolution of a board that supports more than one. Some boards have lower resolutions with more colors. * This list is not exclusive. Many (perhaps even most) dotted combinations will work. UHC claims that any SVGA based on an ET3000, ET4000, Paradise or Genoa chip-set will fly; Dell echoed this with regard to ET3000, ET4000, WD90C0xx cards, and the same is probably true of all other vendors. * The Renaissance GRX-II is the same board as the Appian Rendition II; the company changed its name. The II/XE is compatible with the Rendition GRX and the Appian Rendition II, it differs in architecture in that it supports more DRAM and runs a little faster than the older cards. All Rendition II type cards run at a maximum resolution of 1024x768-256, the Renditon III runs at 1280x1024-256 with its full VRAM set. * An ESIX reseller says all the TIGA34010-based video cards are pretty much alike and ESIX will drive any of them (the prudent user should probably ask to see the card working before committing). ESIX also supports 720x348 resolution on cheap Hercules-compatible monochrome tubes, and the Everex UltraGraphics display at 1664x1200 resolution. * Beware the Trident and Oak chipsets. Many clone vendors bundle these with their systems because they're cheap, but they break the Roell server and some other X implementations. Also, they appear to argue with the WD8003EP net card, and no re-arrangement of the jumpers seems to fix it. Xfree86 supports the Trident, but the developers say it's slow, and should be avoided. The Oak is not supported. * Third party server technology from companies like MetroLink can support higher performance, higher resolution TIGA and proprietary technology. * The Orchid ProDesigner IIs (top speed 80 MHz, not the 75MHz version) works with both X386-1.2D and X386-1.2E (beta). It works ok with the ESIX 4.0.3 X11R4 stuff at any resolution under 1024x768. But the driver does *not* work with 1024x768 (timings are way off). The vanilla ProDesigner II does work correctly with both the X386 and the Esix X11's (R5 and R4, respectively). Note: this info may change in ESIX 4.0.4, which uses a different X. * The Qume Crystal is a private-label version of the Tseng Labs VGA card. * Linux uses XFree86. See the section on XFree86 for supported cards. * The Mach8 chip is often called the 28880; the Mach 32 chip is often called the 68880. * SCO supports the Eizo MD-B07 only up to 800x600x16. V C I E P M U S B N L Mice --------------------------------------------------------------------------- c c c c y y c y . c (Logitech-compatible) 3-button serial mice (C protocol) c c c c c c n . c (Logitech-compatible) 3-button bus mice (C protocol) . . . . . . y Appoint serial pen-mouse . c . . n . c ATI Wonder+ bus-mouse port . . . y c . c ATI Graphics Ultra bus-mouse port . . . . . . c Genius GM-F303 . . . . . . c Genius GM-F303 . . . c . . . HP C1413A Mouse c . . y c . . IBM PS/2 keyboard mouse c y c c c n c . Logitech MouseMan (M+ protocol) . y c c c c c . . Logitech Trackman (serial, M+ protocol) . c c c n . . Logitech Trackman (bus, M+ protocol) . . . c . . . Logitech hi-res Keyboard Mouse c c c c c c c c . Microsoft 2-button (serial, M protocol) c c c c c c n c . Microsoft 2-button (bus, M protocol) n . . . . . . . Mouse Systems III mice (see notes) . . . c . . . Olivetti Bus Mouse . . . c . . . Olivetti hi-res Keyboard Mouse . . . c . . . Quickshot QS-159 . . . . . . . SummaMouse . . . c . . . Summagraphics Bitpad Notes: * Off-brand mice that advertice compatibility with either Microsoft or Logitech aren't listed here. * BSD/386 says it supports all 1200-9600 baud serial mice, specifying Logitech as an example. This is probably true of all vendors. * X11R5 (X386 1.2) supports all of the known mice on SVR4 in a native mode, bypassing the mouse driver. This wasn't true with X11R4 (X386 1.1b). So if you're using X386 1.2 exclusively, you can use (say) a MouseMan regardless of which SVR4 you're using. * Linux uses Xfree86 and thus supports most C and M-protocol mice in both serial and bus formats. * Mouse Systems III mice don't work with either Consensys V.4.2 and Xfree86. Someone out there put up a special driver to handle a MS III mouse. It's called Serial Mouse Fixer (SMF). This may be a USG-generic problem. V E P M U S B N L Multi-function controllers ----------------------------------------------------------------------- c HP Multifunction c IDE-PLUS-V3 multi i/o board c IODE-3290U (IDE/FD/2S/1P/1G) c Laser Multi-IO/IDE Card c MCT-AIO Serial/Parallel/Game (16550AFN) c MIO-16 Multi IO Card c PTI-227B Super I/O Card (serial, parallel, IDE) c SUPER IDE I/O CARD, model PT-604 c Super IDE/FDC MULTI I/O card Modem 827 Version 11 c Super I/O MP57 c Domain TMC950 SCSI/IDE controller/4 x floppy controller Notes: * This is a new section inspired by the Linux compatibility list. If you have seen any of these cards running under another UNIX, please tell me. V E P M U S B N L Multi-port serial cards ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . c . AMI lamb 4 and 8-port c c v . Arnet (models not specified) . . c . Arnet 2,4 and 8-port and TwinPort c c c y c AST 4-port . . . c Async Accent 4 (see note) . . . c BOCA ATI0 . c v . Central Data . c c . Chase Research . c c . Computone (models not specified) . . v . Computone Intelliport . . c . Computone ATvantage-X 8-port . . c . Comtrol Hostess-4 c c c . Comtrol Hostess-8 c y v . Consensys PowerPorts . . c . CTC Versanet 4AT and 8AT c . c . Cyclades RISC Based 8-16 ports c . y . Cyclades Intel-Based 8-16 ports c . c . Cyclades Cluster (ISA, EISA, MCA) 8-256 ports . . c c y Digiboard 4 and 8-port c c . c . Digiboard DigiChannel PC/8 . . y v c . Digiboard Digichannel PC/Xe-16 (see note below) . y v . Equinox . . . c Gw2760 EX SUPER IO CARD . . c . Kimtron Quartet 4-port c c y c . Maxpeed . . c . Olivetti RS232C Multiport board . . . c PC-COMM 4-port card with 16550 uarts . . c . Quadram QuadPort 1 and 5-port . . . y . SDL RISCOM/8 . . . c ShineCom Multi-User catd LCS-8880 (AST 4-port clone) . c v c . Specialix . c v . Stallion OnBoard . c . . Stargate (models not specified) . . v . Stargate OC4400 (4-port) and OC8000 (8-port) . . c . Tandon Quad serial card . c . . Technology Concepts . . c . Unisys 4-port Notes: * Only SCO, Esix, Microport and BSDI listed multiport cards at all. As some are `smart' cards which require special device drivers, you should *not* assume that a board is supported on a particular port unless the vendor explicitly says so. * SCO says it supports just about every dumb card out there which multiplexes multiple ports onto a single interrupt -- *except* the Bell Hub6; and SCO supports *no* intelligent multiport cards -- but the intelligent card vendors all have drivers for SCO. * Linux claims to support all "dumb" port cards. * The Chase, Computone, Intelliport and Specialix cards will run under SCO using a vendor-supplied driver. * The Maxpeed SS8-UX2 doesn't support RTS/CTS flow control, and requires its own config scripts rather than using inittab and gettydefs. The BSDI people think it works with their config stuff. * Digiboard makes an SVr4 UNIX streams driver available via download for the Digichannel PC/Xe-16. * The Async 4 probe routine terminally confuses the Ultrastor 14 disk controller. Also, this driver is not part of the default beta build. V E P M U S B N L Disk controllers ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . . c 6280-15TX (ESDI) c c . c y . Adaptec 2320/2322 (ESDI) . c . c . . Adaptec ACB 2730C (RLL) . c . c . . Adaptec ACB 2732C (RLL) . . . c . . Compag 32-bit Intelligent Drive Array Controller . . . c . . Compag 32-bit Intelligent Drive Array Controller-2 . . . c . . Compag 32-bit Intelligent Drive Array Expansion . c . . c . CCAT100A (IDE) . c . . . . Chicony 101B c c . y . . Data Tech Corp 6280 (ESDI) . . . . . c DC600 Caching IDE controller (IDE) . . . . . c DTC150x XT (MFM) . . . . . c DTC-6180 (ESDI) . . . . . c DTC-6180-15T . c . . c . DTG 6282-24 (IDE) c c . . . . Everex EV-346 (ST506) c c . . . . Everex EV-348 (ESDI) c c . . . . Everex EV-8120 (IDE) . . . y . . Lark ESDI controller c c . . . . OMTI 8240 (ST506) . . . . . y Promise DC-99M (IDE) . . c . . . PSI Caching controller (ESDI) . . . . . c Seagate ST22M controller w/floppy (MFM) . . . c . . SMS OMTI 8620 and 8627 (ESDI) . . c . . . Ultrastor 12C, 22F . c c y c . Ultrastor 12F . . n c . . Ultrastor 22C (caching EISA version of 12F) . c . . . . Ultrastor 22CA c c . c . c Western Digital 1003 (RLL) . . . c . . Western Digital 1005 . . . . . c Western Digital 1006V-SR2 y . . c . . Western Digital 1006V-MM2 (ST506) y c . y c c Western Digital 1007 A,SE2 (ESDI) . c . c . . Western Digital 1009 SE1/SE2 Notes: * All these ports should support all standard PC hard-disk controllers (ESDI, IDE,ST-506 in MFM and RLL formats). * Increasingly, IDE controllers are being built right onto motherboards. IDE controller cards as a market category are headed for obsolescence. V E P M U S B N L SCSI controllers ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . c . . . Adaptec 1510 (1520 without boot ROM) . . . . y . . . Adaptec 152x (non-bus mastering ISA host adapter) c c y y c y y c y Adaptec 1540, 1542 c . . . c . . . Adaptec 1640 (MicroChannel version of 154x) c c c y n c y n . Adaptec 1740,1742 (EISA) (1542 emulation mode) c y . c y y n y Adaptec 1740,1742 (EISA) (enhanced mode) . . c . v . . . Always IN2000 c c c . v c c c BusLogic BT-542B v c c . v . . c BusLogic BT-742A (EISA) (mPort specifies Revision F) . . . . . c . . BusLogic BT-445S VESA SCSI (in 1542 mode) c . . . v . . . Buslogic BT-545S v . . . v . . . Buslogic BT-747S, 640A, 646S/D . . . . . . c . BusLogic 747S . . . . c . . . Compaq SCSI Option Adapter and Compression Adapter . . . . y . . . Corollary SCSI-CPU c . c c . . . . DPT PM2102 caching controller (MFM emulation) c . c . c . . . DPT PM2102 caching SCSI controller in SCSI mode c . . . c . . . DPT 2011, 2012A, 2012B . . . . . . c . DPT 2012/90 and 2012/95 EISA c . . . . . . . Eclipse 720E . c . . . . . . Everex EV8118/8110 v c . . c . . c Future Domain 1660, 1680, 885, 860 . . . . . . . n Future Domain TMC-850 c . . . c . . . Future Domain 1790/1795, 600, 700 c . . . y . . . IBM HardFile (their SCSI host adapter for MicroChannel) . . c . v . . * Mylex DCE376 (EISA) . . . . y . . . Olivetti ESC-1 (EISA) v . . . . . . . Procomp Pro-Master . . . c . . . . PSI caching controller . . . . . . . c Seagate ST0x . . . . c . . . Storage Plus SCSI-AT "Sumo" . . c . . . . . Ultrastor 32k, 34f v . . . v . . c Ultrastor 14F, 34F v . . . v . . . Ultrastor 24F, 124F, 144F c c c c c . . c Western Digital WD7000 . . . . c . . . Western Digital WD7000-EX (EISA version of WD7000) v . . . . . . . Zynx ZX401, ZX402 Notes: * BusLogic used to be known as BusTek. The BusLogic 542 is a clone of the Adaptec 1542. At least one respondent thinks it works better and faster with the Adaptec drivers than the Adaptecs do! The BusLogic 742 has more complicated antecedents; it's an EISA clone of the 1542, not necessarily compatible with the 1742. * There's a known bug in the Adaptec 1742 firmware that produces hangs when it's used with certain SCSI tape drives, including the popular Archive 2150S. * Bill Austin writes: "the 1740 patches on ESIX [4.0.3a] do work but only bring the speed up in enhanced mode by about 15% over standard (643Kb/s vs 535Kb/s) in writing, although the *read* speed has nearly tripled (2,833 Kb/s) (this is using "iozone 16"). This may give some idea of what improvement to expect from native-mode 1740 operation. * Wolfgang Denk reports that SCO ODT 2.0 running an Adaptec 1542 cannot work with the following Hewlett-Packard drives: HP 97536 SL HP 97536 S HP 97544 A source at SCO says "This problem is known to us. In some not-yet-clearly-understood fashion, these HP drives interact badly with our implementation of scatter/gather disk transfer ordering. There are two different workarounds: you can turn off scatter/gather in the SCSI disk driver, or you can get updated drive control board ROMs from HP." * Under Linux, the Mylex DCE376 works in WD emulation mode only. * NeXT plans 1740 support in 3.2. V E P M U S B N L Network cards ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . c c . . 3COM EtherLink I 3C501 and 3C502 (see note) c y c . c y . c 3COM EtherLink II 3C503 c . . . c c c . 3COM EtherLink 16 (3C507) . . . . v . c . 3COM Etherlink 3C509 c . . . c . . . 3Com 3C523 & 523B EtherLink/MC c . . . c . . . 3Com 3C523 EtherLink/MC TP . . . . . c . . 3com 3C579 EISA 32-bit (EtherLink III) v . . . . . . . Adax APC-MCX . . . . . . . . Allied Telesis RE-2000/AT-1700 Series EtherNet . . . . . . . c Alta Combo . . . . . . . c Artisoft Lantastic AE-2 v . . . v . . . Buslogic 560A, 560T, 760A, 763E . . . . . . . c Cnet UTP 10baseT (NE 2000 emulation) . . . . c . . c Cabletron v . . . v . . . Codenoll CodeNet 8340, 9540, 9543, 9740, 9440, 9443 . . . . c . . . Compaq NwtFlex Ethernet/Token Ring Adapter . . . . c . . . Compaq 32-bit DualSpeed Token Ring Adapter . . . . . . . c D-link Ethernet II v . . . . . . . DTK ELN-001B v . . . . . . . Eclipse 720E . c . . . . . . Everex EV-2015, EV-2016, EV-2026, EV-2027 . . . . c . . c HP 27245A EtherTwist Adapter Card/8 ISA TP . . . . c c . c HP 27247A EtherTwist Adapter Card/16 ISA TP . . . . c . . c HP 27250A ThinLAN Adapter Card/8 ISA BNC . . . . c . . . HP 27248A EtherTwist EISA Adapter Card/32 c . . . c . . . IBM Token-Ring Network Adapter . . . . c . . . IBM Token-Ring Network Adapter II (short and long card) c . . . c . . . IBM Token-Ring Network Adapter 4/16 . . . . c . . . IBM Token-Ring Network Adapter/A . . . . c . . . IBM Token-Ring Network 16/4 Adapter/A . . . . . . c . Intel TokenExpress v . . . . . . . Kodiak EISA . . . . . y . . Lan Research LR-2000 (NE2000 compat) . . . . c . . . Microdyne (Excelan) EXOS 205, 205T, 205T/16 v . . . c . . . Racal Datacomm NI6510 ISA and ES3210 EISA c c c c . . . . Intel PC-586 aka iMX-LAN/586 c . . . . . . . Intel Ether Express 16 TP . . . . . c . c Novell NE1000 c c . . c c . c Novell NE2000 . . . . c . . . Novell 3200 v . . . . . . . Proteon Pronet 4/16 Token Ring . . . . . . . c SIIG Inc E-Lan/200 (NE 2000 compatible) c y c c c y y c c SMC & Western Digital 8003 and 8013 and variations . . . . . c . . TNIC 1500 Transition Eng. Ethernet card . . . . . . . . WD TokenRing card . . . . . c . . Xircom Pocket Ethernet III v . . . . . . . Zynx EISA-Action 7X301 Notes: * Dick Dunn opines "Somewhere along here, somebody needs to note that the 3C501 is a miserable-misbegotten-son-of-a-lame-she- camel-and-a-desperate-jackal Ethernet card, at least in UNIXland. It has serious problems in any serious multi-user system because of various hardware idiosyncrasies which are on the order of can't-walk-down-the- street-and-chew-gum." Do tell, Dick! * Linux is claimed to support all 8390-based Ethernet cards. V E P M U S B N L Tape drives ----------------------------------------------------------------------- c c y . c c y Archive 2150S or Viper 150 21247 (SCSI, QIC-150) c c c . c . . Archive Viper VP150E c . c c c . . Archive Viper 60 21116 c . c c c . . Archive Viper 150 25099 c . . . c . . Archive FT60i (Scorpion 5945C) . . c c c . . Archive Viper 2525 25462. . . c . y . . Archive 60 - 525MB (QIC-02 and SCI) . . c . c . . Archive 4mm 4520 DAT . . c c c . . Archive Python models 25501-003, -005 and -008 (SCSI) c . . . c . . Archive Python DDS 4520NT and 4521NT DAT drives . * c c c . . Archive XL (5580 & friends) . . c c . . . Archive 3800 . . . c . . . AT&T KS22762 and KS23495 (SCSI) . . . . c . . Bell Technologies XTC-60 . c . . . . . Caliper CP150 . . . . c . . Cipher CP-60B, CP-125B . c . . . . . Cipher ST150S-II . . . c c . . Cipher ST150S2/90 (SCSI) . . c . n . . CMS Jumbo - 60MB QIC-40 v . . . . . . CMS Powertape c . . . . . . Control Data US-22762 . . . c n . . Emulex MT02/S1 +CCS INQ (SCSI) . c c . . . . Everex Excel Stream 60, 125, 150 . c c . . . . Everex5525ES (SCSI) . c c . . y . Everex EV-811, EV-831, EV-833 c . c c c c . Exabyte EXB-8200 (SCSI) . . . . c c . Exabyte EXB-8500 (SCSI) v . . . . . . GigaTrend UniDAT . . . . c . . HP 35450A (SCSI) c . . c . . . HP 88780 (SCSI) . . . c . . . HPCIPHER M990 (SCSI) . . . c . . . NCR H6210-STD1-01-46C632 (SCSI) . . . . c . . Mountain 8mm Cartridge . . . n y . . Mountain FileSafe 150MB (QIC-02) . . . . c . . Mountain FileSafe 60-300MB (QIC-02) . . . . y y . Sankyo 525ES (SCSI) . . . c . . . Sony SDT-1000 (SCSI) . . c . . . . Tallgrass 150 - 525MB SCSI c . . . c . . Tandberg DQIC (SCSI) . . . . . . c Tandberg TDC-3600 (SCSI) . . . . y . . Tandbrg TDC-3660 (SCSI) . . . . . . . TUV DAT c . . . . . c Wangtek 5099EN24 (60MB) . . c . c . . Wangtek 150SE (SCSI) c c c y y . . Wangtek 5150ES (SCSI) . . c . c . . Wangtek 60 - 525MB (QIC 02 and SCSI) . . c . c . . Wangtek 6130 - HS 4mm DAT. . . y c c c . Wangtek 5125ES ES41, 5150ES ES41, 5150ES FA0 (SCSI) c . . . c . . Wangtek 5125EQ (125MB) c . . . c . . Wangtek 5150EQ (150MB) c . c c c c c Wangtek 5150ES SCSI-3 (SCSI) . . c . c c . WangTek 5150PK QIC-02 (QIC-150) . . . . c . c Wangtek 5525 (SCSI) . . c c c . . Wangtek 6130-F (SCSI) . . c c c . . Wangtek KS23417, KS23465, KS24569 (SCSI) Notes: * All SVr4s inherit USG support for QIC-02, QIC-36 1/4", or SCSI tape interfaces, using QIC-24 (9-track, 60MB), QIC-120 (15-track, 125MB) or QIC-150 (18-track, 150MB) formats. * UHC specifies the following tape controller/drive combinations: Wangtek PC-36 + Wangtek 5099-EN, Everex 811 + Wangtek 5150-EN, Bell Tech + Wangtek 5150-EN, Archive SC499-R + Archive External FT-60, Archive VP402 + Archive Viper 2150L, Everex 811 + Archive Viper 2150L, Bell Tech + Archive Viper 2150L, Archive VP402 + Archive Viper 2150L. * UHC claims that Any floppy tape supporting the QIC-107 physical and QIC-117 logical interface specs and QIC-80 or QIC-40 recording formats should work. This is probably true of other vendors as well. * BSDI says it supports almost any Wangtek 1/4" standard 3M streamer with a QIC-02 or QIC-36 interface. However, they admit that the Archive SC402 QIC-02 controller will not work. BSDI says it will support almost any SCSI tape unit, as well. A small patch was required to get the Sankyo E525ES to work under 0.99, but that has been incorporated in 1.0. * SCO's tape compatibility table lists drive/controller pairs; not all drives listed have been included here. They allege that any QIC-02 drive should work. Unofficial sources inside SCO claim any SCSI drive ought to work. * A source at SCO says the CMS Jumbo is neither compatible with QIC40/QIC80 nor Irwin "standards", vendor supplies their own driver which SCO does not support. He also said "CMS is in general fairly UNIX-hostile; don't buy their stuff if you have a choice." Tom Haapanen adds simply "Ick. Stay away!" On the other hand, Jerry Rocteur praises their hardware and says he found them quite helpful and knowledgeable. * The Emulex MT02 is a QIC02 bridge controller for the SCSI bus -- lets you take an old QIC02 drive and run it on a SCSI bus. It is said to use a very old version of the SCSI spec; caveat emptor. * John Plate writes: "According to a fax from the Archive manufacturer Maynard, [the XL 5580 drive only works with ESIX 4.0.3] if the tape drive is "drive" two! Which is the same as disabling the second floppy drive and then set a jumper on the tape drive." * NEXTSTEP is claimed to support SCSI tape drives, but no makes or models are specified. V E P M U S B N L Non-Winchester mass storage ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . . . Bernoulli 90MB exchangeable SCSI n . . . . . Chinon CD-ROMS . . . . c . Compaq Dual-Speed CD-ROM Drive . . . . c . DEC RRD42 . . . . c . Hitachi CDR 1750s . . . . c . Hitachi CDR 3750 . . c . . . Hitachi, Toshiba (models not specified) . . . . c . IBM External CD-ROM . . . . c . IBM Internal CD-ROM II Disk Drive 1104 c . . c . . Maxtor RXT-800HS c . . . . . Maxtor Tahiti-I, Tahiti-II (floptical disk) . . . . . c . Mitsumi FX001 double-speed CD-ROM c . . . . . NEC CDR-82 (SCSI CD-ROM) . . . . c . NEC CDR-73 . . . . c . NEC CDR-73M . . . . c c NEC CDR-74 . . . . c . NEC CDR-75 . . . . c . NEC CDR-77 . . . . c . NEC CDR-83 . . . . c . NEC CDR-83M . . . . c . NEC CDR-84 . . . . c . Olivetti CDR-5541 c . . . v . Pioneer DRM-600 (SCSI CD-ROM) c . . . . . Sony CDU-8012 XM-3201B (SCSI CD-ROM) c . . . . . Sony SMO E501 (floptical disk) . . . . c c Sony CDU-541-01 . . . . c . Sony CDU-6110-01 . . . . . c Sony CDU-31A non-SCSI CD-ROM. . c c . . . Storage Dimensions XSE1-1000S1 optical disk . y c . . c SyQuest cartridge media . . . . . . Tandata . . . . c . Texel DM-3024 . . . . c . Texel DM-5024 . c c c . . Toshiba TXM-3201A1 CD-ROM c . . . . . Toshiba XM-3201B (SCSI CD-ROM) . c c y c . . Toshiba TXM-3301B CD-ROM . . c c . . Toshiba WM-C050 c c c c . . Toshiba WM-D070 WORM drive . . . . c . Toshiba XM-3101B . . . . c . Toshiba XM-3201B . . . . c . Toshiba XM-3301B . . . . c . Toshiba XM-3401B E1 * Univel's Hardware Compatibility Guide claims that UnixWare works OK with Chinon CD-ROMs, but Dave Parker says they don't. V E P M U S B N L Sound and Multimedia Cards ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . . . c Adlib . . . c ATI Stereo F/X . . c . Intel GX/Professional motherboard audio . . c c Media Vision ProAudioSpectrum 16 . . c . ProStudio 16 . . c . Compaq Business Audio c c . c SoundBlaster . . . c SoundBlaster Pro 2 . . . c Thunderboard * The LGX documentation mentions playing audio CD tracks, and says Media-Vision cards other than the ProAudioSpectrum 16 are not supported yet. * MST and BSD/386 say they offer support for SoundBlaster-compatible boards. VII. FREEWARE ACCESS FOR SVR4 SYSTEMS. US4BINR is an archive dedicated to binaries (executable compiled program) for UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4) on 386/486 PC computer. Our goal is to provide easy access to precompiled programs. Those programs are (hopefully): Up to date. Documented. Useful or fun. Uploads annoucement are made in comp.unix.sysv386 and comp.unix.sys5.r4. US4BINR carries PD, Freeware, shareware, games, etc... US4BINR is a non profit organisation. US4BINR is available using anonymous ftp or email server. Anonymous ftp: Connect to wuarchive.wustl.edu and go to the /systems/svr4-pc directory. Mail server: To get help about the mail server, send the following message to request@us4binr.login.qc.ca reply Put_your_email_address_here help quit There is an archive of "custom" installable SCO UNIX binaries at: ftp.wimsey.com:pub/wimseypd It includes things like cnews, trn, elm, nntp, perl, gcc, etc. These are also sent out periodically on the biz.sco.binaries news group. VIII. FREE ADVICE TO VENDORS: As a potential customer, it's to my advantage to have everybody in this market competing against one another as hard as possible. Accordingly, some free advice to vendors, which I'm broadcasting to all of them and the public so as to put just that much more pressure on each vendor. :-) SCO: You have a serious image problem with many hackers which you've exacerbated recently by falling behind the SVr4 leading edge and then engaging in what certainly appears to be an attempt to sucker careless buyers with deceptive product naming. But the reaction to this wouldn't be nearly so vehement if it didn't come on top of years of discontent with more technical choices. There's too much stuff in the SCO kernel and admin tools that's different from USG and *not better*; too much stuff that raises weird little compatibility problems that shouldn't be there. Verbum sap. This different-but-not-better problem is perfectly reflected by the one thing about the otherwise-excellent SCO documentation that sucks moldy moose droppings; the rearrangement and renaming of the reference manual sections. Your technical writers entertain a fond delusion that this helps nontechnical users, but all it really does is confuse and frustrate techies with experience on other UNIXes. Lose it. Everybody but SCO: SCO's documentation set is to die for (except in the one respect noted above), and they add a lot of value over the base UNIX with things like ODT DOS and CodeView. Only Dell came even close to matching SCO in the nifty add-ons department, and even they had a lot of room for improvement. If you want to outcompete SCO, you have to be *better*; this means (at minimum) supporting a windowing debugger and ISAM libraries and DOS support that goes beyond 2.0. A Dell person warns that the kinds of tweaks to the source made by porting houses can break X/Open (XPG3) conformance. SCO tests every build with VSX (the X/Open-approved XPG3 test suite); Dell used to, and reported that they often found places where seemingly innocuous bug fixes caused XPG3 violations. Other UNIX vendors would be well advised to do likewise and formally test for XPG3 (or, better yet, XPG4!). Set up an 800 number for tech support. Support customers hate spending time on hold, and they hate it like poison when they have to *pay* for the hold time. The more overloaded your support staff is, the more important this gets. Verbum sap. Everybody but Yggdrasil and Soft Landing Software: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uparshin! A complete, working UNIX plus GNU tools plus X is now available for around $60 --- *with sources*. Your prices have to drop by an order of magnitude, or your service has to get a whole hell of a lot better, if you're going to try and compete with that. Adapt or die. Esix, MST, UHC: Get 800 numbers for product info, too. MST: Set up a support@mst.com alias to your cs address, see above. What would that take, a whole five minutes? :-) On present trends, your software prices are cheap enough; you'd probably get more sales mileage out of pulling down the hardware prices for your pre-configured systems. Everybody but MST and Microport: Set up a `sales' alias to your info and orders email address. A universal convention for this means just one less detail prospective customers need to remember. Microport: Your complete system is way overpriced relative to what other vendors in the top tier are selling. If I were a corporate customer, there is no *way* I could justify spending the $2500 premium over (say) ESIX's price. You aren't offering anything but a crippled copy of JSB Multiview to justify that premium and that ain't enough. There's some evidence that you've got a technical lead on the competition. Push it; push it *hard*. You're first off the blocks with 4.0.4; keep that up, be first out with a stable 4.2 ESMP. Market yourselves as the leading-edge outfit, court the hard-core wizards as their natural ally, detail somebody who's fluent in English as well as C to listen and speak for you on USENET, and keep the promises you make there. UHC: You've decided to push support; that's good, but follow through by getting that 800 number. Don't lose those small-company virtues of candor and flexibility, trade on them. Your policy of having all techs clear up to the product manager take turns on the support lines is a damned good idea, stick with it. And I'm sufficiently impressed with what I've heard from your guys that I think you might be able to fight Microport for the friend-to-wizards mantle, too. Maybe you should try. Everybody but Esix, MST, and Microport: Carry the FreeTools package! These three savvy vendors have committed to do so --- getting the best in Internet freeware to attract customers. Send me a DC6525 tape and I'll fill it with bits in SCSI-121 format. Everybody except BSDI: BSD/386 includes *sources*. For *everything*. Be afraid; be very afraid. In effect, this recruits hundreds of eager hackers as uncompensated development and support engineers for BSDI. Don't fool yourselves that the results are necessarily going to be unfocused, amateur-quality and safe to ignore --- it sure didn't work that way for gcc or Emacs. The rest of you will have to work that much harder and smarter to stay ahead of their game. BSDI: Don't you get complacent either. The 386BSD and Linux distributions are breathing down *your* neck... The most effective things you can do to to seriously compete with SVr4 vendors are: a) emphasize standards conformance --- POSIX, FIPS, XPG3, etc., and b) follow through on your support promises. Just another flaky BSDoid system isn't really very interesting except to hobbyists, even with sources --- but if it were proven a reliable cross-development platform it could capture a lot of hearts and minds among commercial software designers. Everybody: Do something about your product names! Even the cases that don't appear to be deliberate deception are very confusing to the customer. If you're releasing an enhanced 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 that's what you ought to *call* it. I recommend: Consensys UNIX Version 1.2 --> Consensys UNIX 4.0.3 revision 1.2 ESIX System V Release 4.0.4 --> Esix UNIX 4.0.4 revision 4 MST SVr4 UNIX --> MST UNIX 4.0.3 Microport System V/4 version 4 --> Microport UNIX 4.0.4 UHC Version 3.6 --> UHC UNIX 4.0.3 revision 6 The fact is, all these idiosyncratic version-numbering systems do you no good and considerable harm. At worst, they make it look like you're trying to pull a scam by deceiving people about the level of the base technology. At best, they parade your internal revision number (which conveys no useful information unless one is an existing customer considering an upgrade already) and obscure the really important information. Do your product differentiation elsewhere, in substance rather than nomenclature; it's not useful here. You're *all* badly understaffed in support engineering, and it shows. Boy does it show --- in poor followup, long hold times, and user gripes. The first outfit to invest enough to offer really first-class quick-response support is going to eat everyone else's lunch. Wouldn't you like to be it? IX. INTO THE FUTURE. It's always tough to get vendors, especially vendors as big as USG, to be candid about current development and future directions. Here are some things I've gleaned from usually reliable sources: There's not going to be a SVR4.0.5. As far as USG is concerned there was SVR4.0 Version 3 (internally known as v7.4) and SVR4.0 Version 4 (internally known as w3.4). There won't be a SVR4.0 Version 5 because USG did SVR4.2 (originally SVR4.1dt) next, and is currently working on SVR4/ESMP. Maybe there'll be a set of patches for SVR4.0 Version 4, but that's probably it. So if anybody tells you they are going to have `SVR4.0.5', be skeptical. There are significant kernel bug fixes going form SVR4.0.3 to SVR4.0.4, but no real functional changes. Watch out for the memory manager in SVR4.0.3. What some people call SVR4.3 isn't officially named that. At USG, it's called SVR4.2/ESMP (Enhanced Security, Multi Processor). There is an MP version of SVR4.0 that was done by the Intel Consortium (primarily NCR and Intel). It is often called SVR4.0/MP or sometimes SVR4.1. Vendors with MP versions of SVR4.0 are probably offering this, rather than a homegrown version. IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND ENVOI Many netters have sent me email contributing technical information, feedback, and comment. Thanks to all. It's in combinations of individual mission and collective cooperation like this one that the net really shines, and I'm grateful to everybody who's worked with me to improve the signal/noise ratio. The level of cooperation I've experienced from vendors' program managers, techies and marketing people since the first issue has generally been outstanding. Particular high marks go to Jeremy Chatfield (formerly of Dell and Information Foundation), Bela Lubkin at SCO, Kristen Axline (formerly of Microport), John Prothro and Sam Nataros at UHC, and Rob Kolstad at BSDI. By cooperating intelligently with this FAQ, they've done a great job of serving the market and representing their corporate interests. -- Send your feedback to: Eric Raymond = esr@snark.thyrsus.com