BSD Unix for the PC?

[Dick Dunn]

pcg at rupert.cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes:
>...1) Some University guys have ported 4.3BSD to an 80286 (yes, an
> 80286).  They claim it works nicely, thank you...

The last general update I'd seen on this project was that it was coming
along, but slowly.  (It's being done by volunteers.)  They have a working
system but (again, last I heard) there was still plenty to do.

>...Everex or ISC should contact them and redistribute commercially
> their work;...

Whoa!  If you want a commercial product, and you don't want to get flamed
into an alternate reality, there's a lot more to it than just "redistrib-
uting"!  You have to provide documentation and support, fix bugs, etc.
It's not a small undertaking.

>...I think many people would love a cheap 4.3BSD on a
> cheap 80286. I sure would. I think that many Universities would
> be interested in running 4.3BSD on cheapo 80286 clones...

I might like one too, for the machine at home, but I think the commercial
reality is that it's too easy and too cheap to get into a 386 machine for
there to be a large enough market for a 286 system nowadays.  I think
Grandi is right in the general sense that there's a fair university market
for cheap UNIX boxes, and BSD tends to be preferred in universities.  But I
really think the 386 (or at least the 386SX) is the processor of choice for
such a system.  That limits 286 interest to a declining population of
existing machines.

> 2) You can have Mach on an 80386. Mach is totally 4.3BSD API
> compatible, and has quite a few nice tricks in addition. Ask CMU
> or Mt. Xinu for details.

CMU says they use it internally, but they don't make it available outside
(as they do with the VAX, Sun, or RT versions).  Mt. Xinu hasn't announced
anything for the 386 yet (as far as I know), tho I'd be surprised if they
didn't pick it up in their "second release" they've talked about late next
year.  Anyone have any better info on Mach-for-386 availability?

> 3) Rumours have it that Sun or somebody that licensed SunOS did
> port SunOS 3, which is really 4.2BSD, to generic 386s. Now that
> the Sun386i is not selling terribly well, Sun could make a few
> quick bucks by selling binary SunOS for generic 386s.

Again, something like that is NOT quick bucks...you don't just toss things
together and start shipping.  There's a fair hardware difference between a
386i and "any old AT clone" that has to be supported in an open-market 386
system.  Beyond that, there's an interesting question of whether Sun is
interested in the 386 at all, given the recent announcement that the next
upgrade of SunOS won't appear on the 386i.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd at ico.isc.com    uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd     (303)449-2870
   ...Never offend with style when you can offend with substance.