Taking risks on software (ISC)

[Rick Richardson]

In article <[2575a8ad:160.11]comp.unix.i386;1 at nstar.UUCP> akcs.larry at nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) writes:

>How has the file system managed with complete un-attended power downs?  Try
>pulling the plug a couple of times and see what happens.  I've lost the
>power a couple of times to this machine (running SCO) and have NEVER lost a
>file let alone the ability to boot the machine (which was the case SEVERAL
>times when running ISC 2.02).

This is completely different from my experiences.  The only files
that I have seen get damaged on a sudden power outage are Korn shell
history files.  They are always found by fsck and linked into
lost+found, but who cares.  Never had the machine fail to boot, either.
Been running ISC since February, 1988.  We lose power around here
frequently, last time I checked there must've been 2 dozen Korn
history files in lost+found, dating back to April.

Larry's experiences seem to be wildly different from those of
most ISC users.  You have to wonder if there wasn't some
subtle hardware incompatibility with his system or something.

On the other hand, people seem to be nervous about making the
switch from SCO Xenix to SCO UNIX because of a perception that
SCO UNIX is buggy.  I haven't the slightest idea, myself, but
they must have some reason for feeling that way.

Personally, I'd like to see the switch happen quicker, and while
I'd recommend ISC first, I have no real reason for preferring it
other than its been very good to me.  Which is exactly the
reason that many SCO Xenix customers seem to prefer sticking
with SCO when they make the switch to UNIX.

I haven't been keeping up with the price comparisons, but
a customer reported to me that he just picked up the ISC two
user runtime, quantity one, for $219 from a discount software
distributor.  I suppose that will be completely without support,
but it seemed very competitive with *all* of the other OS
alternatives on 386 hardware to me.

-Rick

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