Interactive UNIX 2.2 (really V.3 and V.4)

[Wm E. Davidsen Jr]

In article <1990May31.051750.27155 at ico.isc.com> rcd at ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:

| >...SystemV.4 is overdue now--how are they going to compete when it
| > finally hits the streets?...
| 
| Depends on when it hits the streets and what it looks like when it gets
| there, doesn't it?!?  2.2 is a release for now--*right* now, today, when
| you've got a machine sitting there and you need an OS.  I haven't seen a
| firm release date for V.4 from anyone.  Everybody's looking at it and
| working hard on it, but that's nowhere near to promising the ship date.

  I believe that there is some kind of arrangement by which AT&T will
say when it can be released, although that's only what I hear from
vendors. There are at least two vendors with beta versions out which I
would run on a production machine, although perhaps not the most
critical systems, obviously.
| 
| As for what V.4 offers:  Yes, there are lots of new features (and old
| features the BSD world has that we want...there are days I'd kill for long
| file names).  Are those features free?  Of course not.  What are the
| tradeoffs?  Are they worthwhile for everybody?  Perhaps not.  Now, I'm out

  I want symbolic links, so I can put /usr/lib/news and /usr/spool/news
in one filesystem by itself. Long filenames are useful if you have 400+
BSD machine on your ethernet (I do at work) and want to use ftp with
'mget' safely. I have been surprised at the good performance of the
filesystem on V.4 versions, although I can't say who's or quote number
except to the vendors, obviously.
| 
| >  I'd advise anyone who can stand the wait to wait for V.4...
| 
| How long are you advising them to wait?  If somebody's got a plan for the
| distant future (let's say mid-91 or beyond), he can afford the gamble of
| waiting.  If he's looking at early 91, there will probably be V.4's out
| there, but how stable will they be?  If he's looking at late 90, it might
| work out but *I* wouldn't write a business plan based on it.

  I wouldn't bet a career on it by writing a business plan, but I
certainly would wager a hundred bucks or so on delivery in third
quarter. I think you're right, though, even without any more bugs than
the usual release, the system administration is not just like V.3, or
Xenix, or anything else. In some cases you can run directly from the
admin tools and be happy, while some things will leave you reading
manuals for a bit.
| 
| In short, if you must have the two-way sneeze-through wind vents, star-
| studded mud guards, edible sponge steering column, and chrome fender dents,
| AND you can afford to wait some amount of time, not yet determined but
| definitely measured in months, wait for V.4.  If you need a stable OS
| today, but without some of the stuff you'd like, go with V.3.  (That
| advice has nothing much to do with ISC's systems...it could just as well
| be said about SCO, ESIX, etc.)

  Good advice. I think the timeframe might be very soon, but if you
don't need the features you might well wait for six months or so. If you
evaluate o/s versions, grab V.4 when you can, it's going to be very
important in the long run.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen at sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me