SCO UNIX or Open Desktop, what's the difference?

[Wu Liu]

/--In reply to ra at intsys.no (Robert Andersson)...
| I need to set up UNIX on a PC.  It has to be from SCO for political
| reasons.  What confuses me is that I am offered either:
|     UNIX
|     UNIX Dev.Sys.
|     NFS
|     TCP/IP
|     VP/ix
|     Xsight
| Or:
|     Open Desktop
|     Open Desktop Server Upgrade
|     Open Desktop Dev.Sys.
| 
| The machine will be used for software development only, in a single
| user 'workstation' type setup, but set up both as a NFS server and client.
| Compilers, shell, utilities, written and online documentation and network
| software are areas of importance to me.  X and databases less so.
| Getting a product that is maintained is also important.  The time it
| took for Open Desktop to move to 3.2v2 scares me, as does the apparent
| non-development of Xsight.
| 
| Does it really matter what I get?
| Pros and cons for either configuration is most welcome.
\--

There are a couple of possible combinations here in addition to the
two you mention above.  In your particular case, I'd probably
recommend obtaining the Open Desktop Personal System bundle along
with the Open Desktop Development System bundle, since that would
get you the most functionality for the lowest price.  Since you're
going to be operating as a single-user system, you don't need the
Server Upgrade.  And yes, NFS for Open Desktop Release 1.1 does
allow you to export filesystems and/or directories without requiring
that you have the Server Upgrade installed.

Functionally speaking, there isn't much difference between the two
configurations.  If you opt for the Open Desktop route, you get
DOS-Merge instead of VP/ix, and you also get LAN Manager Client and
Ingres thrown in.  It's also going to be less expensive to get the
Open Desktop Personal System bundle (Unix, TCP, NFS, LMC, Ingres,
Merge, and Xsight) than getting the equivalent amount of software
separately.  The same thing applies for the Development System pieces.

Of course, if you're set to spend lots of money on SCO software, I
certainly won't complain... ;-)