386/ix User-level Performance??

Cassidy Lynar cassidy at attctc.Dallas.TX.US
Sat Sep 9 07:41:21 AEST 1989


In article <6750 at stiatl.UUCP> john at stiatl.UUCP (John DeArmond) writes:
>
>The backup script was broken - I forget the problem, someone else here fixed 
>that one.  The sysadmin scripts are close but no cigar.  One must still do 
>administration manually because not all necessary functions are included.  

	I think that if you were to purchase the upgrade to 2.0.2 you will
find the these things are fixxed, and work very well.

>The configuration facility and kernal rebuild is difficult to work with
>mainly because of rather poor documentation.  We had to manually edit a
>configuration file to turn on a second asy port.  We had an apparent 
 	
	Once again, I have had very little problem using the kconfig utilities,
the documentation supplied was extensive enough to allow even a first time user
to configure the kernel in a short period of time through the use of the menus 
that interactively take the user through, step-by-step. Com2 is pre-configured and works without re-configuring the kernel in 2.0.2. I cannot speak for earlier
releases however.

>An alarmingly few number of devices are supported and those that are
>generally are not common or popular units.  It is especially annoying

	I guess that you did not read the realease notes then. There are more
devices supported, than Microport, or SCO. And, then again, they are the MOST
popular devices out in the market.

>The VP/IX and X-windows do work, albeit with similiar gotchas caused 
>mainly by poor documentation.  And we've found that for serious X applications,
>VGA-level resolution is really not enough.

	The manuals provided for X-windows are execellent. Two thick manuals fordevelopment and one for users. I have found them to be as good as those printed
by MIT.

>My biggest complaint, after the obvious bugs mentioned above, is about
>the documentation.  Aside from being somewhat poorly written, it consists

	Ever tried using the AT&T manuals? They are by far the worst! Even
the complete idiot can understand INTERactive's manuals.

>of perfect-bound paperback books.  You know, the kind that will never lie
>flat on a desk and shed pages after some use.  I generally take these
>books to the print shop and have holes drilled and the binding sheared off.
>And the ones I use the most, I run through a magnifying copier and blow the
>pages up to 8.5 X 11".  My greatest plea to Interactive is to give us
>decent, usuable documentation.  I'd love to see it all come in 8.5X11"
>spiral bound books or something similiar.
>
>My conclusion is that if you are going to ship a product you must support,
>go with Sun.  It really is not feasible in a commercial development shop
>to be wasting developers' hours fixing what should have been caught in
>alpha-testing.  It is very difficult to sell a Unix solution to customers
>and/or upper management who are used to the reliability of VMS/DEC, with
>these kinds of problems.

	Ahh! At last the obvious... Two things, SUN is great if you have 15-20
thousand dollars to spend on a machine, if not, then ISC is by far the best. Secondly, people whom are used to VMS, and want more power, should by a MS-DOS machine. Unix is a beast of it's own, and cannot be compared in anyway at all to VMS!! Yes, I have to agree, people used to VMS, probably could not be convinced to
purchase a UNIX machine easily. If they want multi-tasking, then OS2 is for em. As for me, Unix is the ONLY answer, and not being rich by no means, I chose ISC for the support, the fact that THEY ported AT&T SVR3 from their version, yes I have that right, and the price.
	
>If you are strapped for bux and must build a system cheaply,
>then Interactive is not a bad choice.  You can build a minimal system 
>that will still perform well very cheaply if you shop around a bit.

	Wow, I can't believe that some people are just SO arrogant. I built my
machine, and purchased the ENTIRE ISC packages for under 4 thousand dollars. This system, drystones at 6907 (about 5-10% slower than a VAX 8600), has 105 megs of storage, 2 modems, 800x600 VGA, 4 megs of RAM, bus mouse, and a couple of other things. You can't even begin to TOUCH an IBM PS-2 or any other NAMEBRAND for that much WITH the OS...

>to gain a foothold.  I wake up nights sweating at the nightmare of having to 
>support an OS/2 platform :-)

	This I agree with... :-)

>This is kinda an ad-hoc list of thoughts.  I'm planning to make a detailed
>post of all my problems and workarounds where they exist.  But this list 
>should do for now.

	And I shall watchfor it... Ididn't want to turn this into a flame, but it would appear that it has. If I have offended anyone, than too bad. ISC is a 
damned good product, and offers UNIX SVR3 to people like me that don't make the
hi 5 digit salaries. Also, this is my disclaimer. I am in NO WAY associated withINTERactive. I am just a very satisfied customer.

-cass

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cassidy Lynar                               | Behind every good man, is a better
Organization? What's that? Irving, TX       | computer!
..!attctc!ydisac!cassidy
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