Questions About ESIX

[Eric Beser]

In article <1510 at ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP>, ian at ssc-vax.UUCP (Ian R. Searle) writes:
> I currently run SCO UNIX and a 386/25 with 8mb RAM and 125mb RSDI
> hard disk. I have both OS and DS liscenses, but I am very interested
> in X-windows. Instead of upgrading SCO I am considering ESIX. Can
> anybody provide answers to these questions (please e-mail). I have
> tried asking resellers but I usually get non-commital, vague
> responses. 
> 
> For the ESIX 2-user system.
> 
> 1.) I have heard it comes with X11R3, does this include X-lib and
> the Xt-intrinsics so that I could do developement work.

I have the unlimited user version, but the two user version is the same.
You get all the xlibs, etc except for motif. I bought the ESIX GUI
which is motif. Beware though, X is not X. Binaries compiled on other
systems linking other xlibs will not work. You have to link your version
of xlib with the obj files on your system.  Even if you are runing stuff
only at the client level. This is not a problem for the developer. This
is a problem if you are buying canned software that runs on "386/ix"

Incidentally, where these system dependent libs are not involved, you
can run 386/ix compiled binaries no problem.



> 
> 2.) What flavor window manager and widget sets come with the system.
>

UIM and twm come standard. you get the XT, AW, etc. with motif you get
the MWM and UIL compiler. As stated above, some canned sets may not
work. for example we were burned (not by ESIX) on the XVT Graphics
toolkit. It doesn't work and the author won't port it unles we pay him
to do so.

 
> 3.) Does the X-server support the ATI VGA wonder graphics card with
> a NEC-3D (256k memory, no biult in mouse, the mouse will be a MS
> serial mouse).
>
 Yes at 800 x 600. The 3d does not do well at 1024 x 700.
The microsoft mouse works ok but get a three button. Logitek is good.
 
> 4.) How good are the supplied C compiler and libraries. COFF
> 
> format?
>
The C compiler and libraries (standard ones) are the same ones you get
with interactive. You can buy other compilers. You get the C compiler
and libraries as a part of the basic system, unlike interactive. ESIX
did well by not unbundling their packages. The TCP/IP system works
but you can get in trouble (software development wise) using the socket
library. For some reason, they made the berkely socket calls different.
You get memory segment errors if you call them unmodified (as found in
some software packages taken off the net). Which is my next big beef.
Why make the include files the same. The TCP/IP files are not in
the same place as other versions of 386/nix and it takes some
modification to get it right. 

GNU cc and debuger work fine. As does HCR's (now SCO Canada) C++ and
dbxtra (a nice! debugger).

Meridian's Ada compiler works OK but Oregon Software's products do not!
It has to do with compiling everything on SCO's Xenix in their
non-compatable format. If they had chosen the portible format, they too
would work. I have not tried Alsys or Verdix's products for Ada on the
386 machine, I have tried Intel's Ada compiler (which is really
Telesoft) and it too works nicely.

The format of the files is standard COFF. GNU's loader does not work. I
wish it did, but it doesn't work for any version of 386/nix. I would
like to have runtime loading of obj files so I can use Scheme with the X
windows bindings, but that too requires too much like the sun. I guest I
have to wait for 4.0.
 
> 5.) Does the OS support DOS partitions on the same hard disk.
>

I am not sure on this one, but I do run VPIX. I have a problem with
reading my second floppy drive at 1.4 meg. Thats a VPIX problem. Which
means that ESIX and everyone else who has this problem has to wait for
the vendor to decide when to fix this.
 
> 6.) Does the OS come with utilities to copy files from/to the
> DOS/UNIX partitions.
>

Yes. a version of mcopy will copy dos disks from both a and b drive,
mdir will read dos directories. mcopy will translate the files to and
from dos. mtype, mren, mdel do the rest of the work.
 
> 7.) Does the system come with on-line man pages.
>
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! What a shame too. I have a hypertext reader that
works on plain text files (or on man pages) and it would have worked
nicely. I don't know why they don't. Maybe if enough people complain
they will.  You don't really have to buy the documenation. Order it from
Prentice Hall, it comes better bound. My next biggest beef with ESIX is
that they don't provide the documents on line.

Hear that Ida! I can't really complain about anything else about their
product, so I have to pick on something. Perhaps, when they want to be
truly outstanding....

 
> 8.) I have heard many ggod things about their phone support. Can you
> really talk to someone without sitting on hold for an hour??
>

Their phone support and technical staff are the main reasons why we
switched over to ESIX. They are competent, easy to talk to, friendly,
concerned, caring, and easy to understand (most are far-eastern, but all
are exceptionally fluent in English). We hit some unusual problems which
required more support than normal (not paid for I may add). We have
grown to trust these guys (and have even sent equipment down there when
the telephone couldn't solve the problem). We are recommending them to
our customers, and requiring them for our subcontractors. We have been
using ESIX since rev A, and have seen the many problems that they
started out with solved. Rev D is really solid. 


In summary,  Yes there are bugs, some are agravating. Check with them
before you order a SCSI disk to make sure it works. I have a disk that
was 4 years old and worked great on REV C but does not work on REVD.
But bugs can be worked around, and hopefully fixed. I have seen their X
window server go from useless to usefull in full color mode. The NFS
works nicely with the Xwindow Terminal, and the networking software
finally works on the network. I think that in keeping the unix product
with the R&D group, Everex has chosen wisely. They also hired a bunch of
staff that really knows unix, and will even talk to you on the phone.
The engineers really get upset if there are bugs and want to talk to
you. They care about their product. I hope this doesn't go to their
heads, but right now, they are doing something different that any other
386/nix vendor. When I called Interactive to get a question answered,
that their salesman couldn't answer, I got the "I will help you this
time but I find it hard to believe the salesman gave you this number.
Next time you call, please have a support contract, or I won't be able
to talk to you."

I don't have a support contract, Interactive. I also don't have your
product. Get the message.

The opinions expressed are mine and not representative of my company
officially. Unofficially half my staff support me. The other half wants
to hang me.

Eric Beser          beser at tron.bwi.wec.com
Westinghouse Aerospace Software Engineering
(301)-765-1010

"Captain I think we can do it."
"Make it so, number one!"
 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Ian Searle, uw-beaver!ssc-vax!ssc-bee!ian