Comparison of 386 UNIX offerings

[Karl Denninger]

In article <206 at emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM> ewasser at emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM (Ed.Wasser) writes:
>I am currently in the process of gathering information about UNIX offerings
>from various UNIX vendors for INTEL 386/486 based microcomputers.  The two
>vendors that I am currently interested in are INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. and
>Santa Cruz Operation.  Both ISC and SCO currently offer versions of the UNIX
>operating system based on AT&T UNIX System V Release 3.2.  It is also my
>understanding that both vendors are currently working on versions of UNIX
>based on AT&T UNIX System V Release 4.0.

This is correct.  If experience from the past serves, ISC will be first with
the V.4 release.

>Can someone who has experience with or compared the current versions of ISC
>386/ix Release 2 and SCO UNIX V.3.2 enlighten me as to what the advantages of
>one product over the other are from a technical standpoint.

Ok, here 'ya go...

Good points:
o ISC	- Faster file system performance.
	- Better SCSI support at the present time (higher speed)
	- System V.3 core system; no add-on "security features" that break
	  applications.
	- High performance X-windows server
	- Lower cost for complete system

o SCO	- Better Xenix compatibility
	- Ability to develop for Xenix, System V.3 I386, or MSDOS systems
	- Security features (if you need them, they can be nice)
	- More hardware devices supported in the base release

Bad points:
o ISC	- Support, if not purchased through a reseller, can be a problem.
	- Hardware support is spotty -- fewer peripherals have drivers for ISC.

o SCO	- SCO Unix 3.2 has a few "warts" at present, including problems with
	  mouse recognition and the development system.  Tape drive trouble
	  has also been reported.   
	- SCO Unix 3.2 is a >new release<; some products are not yet shipping.
	- SCO's TCP/IP uses broadcast packets to identify license numbers;
	  this causes performance problems in large ethernet installations.

>In addition, I need information concerning what features each vendor will be
>adding to their AT&T UNIX V.4 based release. I would appreciate any preliminary
>information that can be provided for comparison purposes.
>
>The areas that I am most interested in are:
>
>    DOS Compatibility  (VP/ix, dossette, other forms of DOS/UNIX support)
>	- Any differences in VP/ix implementation or release level ?

Not if you have the current stuff.  Both seem to work about the same as far
as we can determine, and have the same problems.

>        - Will future VP/ix releases support DOS 4 ?

No information.

>    Performance enhancements 
>        - What areas does one vendor have a performance advantage over the
>          other ?  (networking, disk i/o, video, etc.)

ISC's X11 support is excellent.  Disk I/O also is faster on ISC at the
present time; we've seen more than 1MB (megaBYTE)/second through the
filesystem on ISC using SCSI adapters!  SCO can't touch this right now,
although I understand they are working on it.

>    Networking support
>        - Is either vendor planning to provide an LM/X interface for UNIX
>	  applications ?

No idea.

>        - What networking support currently exists ?

TCP/IP & NFS for ISC, TCP for SCO at present.  NFS is orderable, but I
haven't heard of any production releases actually making their way to
customers yet.

>    Security enhancements

SCO has "C2" security certification; ISC does not.

Disclaimer:  We sell both.

--
Karl Denninger (karl at ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl)
Public Access Data Line: [+1 708 566-8911], Voice: [+1 708 566-8910]
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.		"Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"