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From: b...@engr.uark.edu (Bryan D. Jones)
Subject: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Message-ID: <1993Sep02.184251.23903@engr.engr.uark.edu>
Keywords: pc,unix
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Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 18:42:51 GMT
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What are the different PC bassed Unix Operating Systems available?
What do they cost?
What hardware requirements do they have?
How difficult are they to install?

As you can see I'm considering installing a UNIX type OS on my
home computer. If it helps I'm running a 386DX40 with 4MB

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|Bryan D. Jones                             Computing Services      | 
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From: ch...@guug.de (Christoph Maethner)
Subject: Re: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Message-ID: < chmae.747045462@guug.de>
Keywords: pc,unix
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b...@engr.uark.edu (Bryan D. Jones) writes:

>What are the different PC bassed Unix Operating Systems available?
>What do they cost?
>What hardware requirements do they have?
>How difficult are they to install?

>As you can see I'm considering installing a UNIX type OS on my
>home computer. If it helps I'm running a 386DX40 with 4MB

>-- 
>|Bryan D. Jones                             Computing Services      | 
>|Internet: b...@engr.uark.edu                University of Arkansas  |
>|Internet: b...@uafhp.uark.edu               Bitnet bdj@uafsysb      |      


From my personal private experience, with a 386DX40 with (only) 4MB
RAM you should only run unix-systems without X.
Any SystemVRel.4 should do . 
I used to use the Consensys V.4 on a 386SX20 with 4 MB and it worked, though 
it wasn't exactly a runner. Now on a 386DX25 with 8 MB I use a SysVR4.2
from Onsite a german  USL-licencee including X and it works fine. There 
is nothing else making a unix-system faster than RAM and fast disks.
I don't think I will ever need a 486 , I would perfer more RAM.


Installation never was much of a problem. But if you are unlucky, your
mainboard or the rs232 interface card or something else is not compatible
and the system will not boot.


I strongly recommend to order a tape or cdrom as installation media. Using
floppies will  be a pain. It can take up to 12 hours to install a complete 
system. If wyou use a qic-tape it will cost you the extra money for the 
tapedrive, but you have a backup-device then.  Believe me, you will stop
making backups on floppies soon. And even for a home-computer backups are
necessary, I can tell.

I don't know about the prices in the us - in germany it is considerable 
expensive to buy a commercial implementation. Nevertheless I recommend
those before linux, which is free, if you want to learn about the 
standards implemented in the commercial systems. 

As I mentioned before, this is my personal experience.


Chris

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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.misc
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From: iii...@swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Message-ID: <1993Sep3.120425.21703@swan.pyr>
Keywords: pc,unix
Organization: Swansea University College
References: <1993Sep02.184251.23903@engr.engr.uark.edu> < chmae.747045462@guug.de>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 12:04:25 GMT
Lines: 43

In article < chmae.747045...@guug.de> ch...@guug.de (Christoph Maethner) writes:
>From my personal private experience, with a 386DX40 with (only) 4MB
>RAM you should only run unix-systems without X.
I've run Linux with X windows in 4Mb and while it's doable (especially in
mono) I'd not recommend it. Much better that you use the money you didnt
waste buying a commercial offering on buying 4Mb of memory (in fact for
typical prices probably more). Linux without X is fast in 4Mb, 386BSD is
pretty comparable but uses much more disk space.

>Any SystemVRel.4 should do . 
>I used to use the Consensys V.4 on a 386SX20 with 4 MB and it worked, though 
>it wasn't exactly a runner. Now on a 386DX25 with 8 MB I use a SysVR4.2
>from Onsite a german  USL-licencee including X and it works fine. There 
>is nothing else making a unix-system faster than RAM and fast disks.
>I don't think I will ever need a 486 , I would perfer more RAM.
I'd second this comment. With 8 users doing user like things you
tend to hit the IDE disk performance limit and memory limits way before
you hit CPU usage limits. I've found Linux is quite nippy on a 386SX16
certainly comparable to a SUN3/60.

>I don't know about the prices in the us - in germany it is considerable 
>expensive to buy a commercial implementation. Nevertheless I recommend
>those before linux, which is free, if you want to learn about the 
>standards implemented in the commercial systems. 
Linux is very very close to POSIX indeed, more so that some commercial
so called Posix compliant systems. There are thing that are different.
You don't get motif for free and motif is the new world order amongst
user interfaces (You do get X11, TCL/TK, Xaw, OpenLook tools). I happen
to think that Motif is dreadful so I've never worried about it, or paid
$200 to buy it.

You don't get to run shrink wrapped packages though this is suprisingly
close by the look of it. Where I work we threw the commercial system
out and installed Linux.
The Linux DOS emulator isn't as good in some areas as the dos/merge type
stuff provided with things like SCO (notable it doesn't run windows).

Another thing to ask is how much time do you have to play and learn
things. Linux is on the whole faster and smaller but you need to put
a little more effort into it. You don't get phone support either - though
I find usenet and the irc #linux channel better support than most phone
support groups.

Alan
iii...@pyr.swan.ac.uk

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From: jst...@aris.ss.uci.edu (Jeff Stern)
Subject: Re: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Nntp-Posting-Host: aris.ss.uci.edu
Message-ID: <2C8E9252.3016@news.service.uci.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.misc
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Keywords: pc,unix
Lines: 20
Date: 9 Sep 93 02:17:54 GMT
References: <1993Sep02.184251.23903@engr.engr.uark.edu> 
< chmae.747045462@guug.de> <1993Sep3.120425.21703@swan.pyr> 
<1993Sep8.132552.5718@mkseast.alt.ns.ca>

In article <1993Sep8.132552.5...@mkseast.alt.ns.ca>,
Dale Gass < d...@mkseast.alt.ns.ca> wrote:
>iii...@swan.pyr (Alan Cox) writes:
>>In article < chmae.747045...@guug.de> ch...@guug.de (Christoph Maethner) writes:
>>>I don't think I will ever need a 486 , I would perfer more RAM.
>>I'd second this comment. With 8 users doing user like things you
>>tend to hit the IDE disk performance limit and memory limits way before
>>you hit CPU usage limits. 

Wouldn't this, however, be an argument *for* getting a 486?  I am just
wondering, as I have heard that UNIX on a 486 should conceivably run
better because the 486's hardware, especially if it has a local bus,
accesses peripherals, especially the hard drive, much more
efficiently, so that users are not as affected by others using the
drive... 

===========================================================================
Jeff Stern 
"Timex Sinclair UNIX.. coming soon to a dealer near you."
===========================================================================

Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.misc
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From: iii...@swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Message-ID: <1993Sep9.124023.19409@swan.pyr>
Keywords: pc,unix
Organization: Swansea University College
References: <1993Sep3.120425.21703@swan.pyr> 
<1993Sep8.132552.5718@mkseast.alt.ns.ca> <2C8E9252.3016@news.service.uci.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1993 12:40:23 GMT
Lines: 14

In article <2C8E9252.3...@news.service.uci.edu> jst...@aris.ss.uci.edu 
(Jeff Stern) writes:
>Wouldn't this, however, be an argument *for* getting a 486?  I am just
>wondering, as I have heard that UNIX on a 486 should conceivably run
>better because the 486's hardware, especially if it has a local bus,
>accesses peripherals, especially the hard drive, much more
>efficiently, so that users are not as affected by others using the
>drive... 

I said a 486 wasn't that vital talking on CPU grounds. I've not run a local
bus machine, but faster video card and disk driving would be a huge asset.
Yes it probably is a very good argument.

Alan
iii...@pyr.swan.ac.uk