From: root@kilowatt.uucp (0000-Admin(0000))
Subject: Consensys V4 and serial ports
Organization: Kilowatt Computing
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 16:40:06 GMT

Hello all...
	This is my first post to the net, so please bear with me if I do
not follow appropriate protocols too closely.

	I bought Consensys SVR4 about 3 months ago - under their special offer
it was only $795 for EVERYTHING! Since they are in Canada, they had to play
with exchange rates, saving me another 40 dollars or so.
	I have never before had a UNIX system at my disposal and have found
myself in love with it (never to go back to DOS). I have seen a lot of
flames in this newsgroup about Consensys, and I can see where you are all
coming from, but I myself have had no problems with them. I realize bugs in
the UNIX world are serious things (they can REALLY screw up your day,
especially when you think it's your own fault for a while). I have seen
bug fixes posted to the net (from the review of current SVR4 offerings).
I have not tested all of the stuff this SVR4 came with, but I have not had
too much trouble after I realized "sysadm" was a waste of time. 
	I have successfully setup c-news, readnews, etc. etc. And have UUCP
up and running at 38400 with a Telebit WorldBlazer (wish I could go 57600 or
115200 (hint hint - anyone have any patches???). I have had NO problems with
the speed using the original "asy" async port driver. BTW I am using a NS16550
UART - this helps a lot! My friend who has a SPARC 1 running SUNOS 4.1.2
has buffer overruns when I UUCP files to him! (I am running with a 33Mhz 486)
Overall SVR4 seems to be a lot faster than the SPARC running SunOS. I can
compress or uncompress a tar file faster than he can with the SPARC. As much
as 50% faster!
	According to opinions expressed on the net, I would probably opt for
Dell's SVR4 when I have to buy an OS for a customer. Like someone said,
Consensys SVR4 is not to tried at home! I have been a hacker/programmer/
systems programmer/system's administrator for quite a variety of machines
(DecSYSTEM-10/20, VAX/VMS, Micro-11, IBM-pc's et al, etc. etc.) and have found
UNIX to be the hacker's delight. Consensys (and most other SVR4's apparently)
have their fair share of bugs. I have notified them of a few of them, and
they seemed happy to hear about them (as if they would be fixed sooner or
later). If I never hear from them about these bugs, oh well. tar seems to be
weird with symbolic links (I found that bug before I ever read about it on
the net, and informed them of it). And their implementation of "more" (or
is it SVR4 in general?) has a problem discerning printable chars from non-
printable chars (it likes to newline like it has hit the 80 column mark, with
out ever going near it!). But, they are quick to supply fixes for their own
stuff (like the mouse driver that delays incoming characters on every
port). I am currently using "asy" to use 3 (yes 3! contrary to the online
manual that says asy only supports 2 ports) comm ports and have had NO
problems. Hardware flow control works with the WorldBlazer (nice modem, I
heartily recommend it!) and UUCP apparently. I get 1500cps+ to my friends 
SPARC using UUCP!!!
	Oh well... enough horn blowing for Consensys (I know I'll hear all
sorts of stuff about them!). But, to reiterate, most of the times I thought
there was a bug in something Consensys had set up, it turned out to be
something sysadm had done incorrectly and had to be fixed manually. Or just
my knowledge of UNIX was lacking.
	Anyway, if anyone has any questions about Consensys SVR4, I may
be able to help...

*** Consensys is a trademark of Consensys Corporation. Other trademarks
are of their respective companies.

					I am:

-- 
Kilowatt Computing					Arthur A. Krewat
51 Winnecomac Ave.				uunet!admiral!kilowat!krewat
Deer Park, NY 11729					(516) 586-4743
(516) 253-2805						Consensys SVR4
Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386