From: magus@drktowr.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Are we dead??
Date: 18 Nov 92 05:21:44 GMT
Organization: DarkTower Software
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Rick Kelly (rmk@rmkhome.UUCP) wrote:
: Linux is targeted towards people who like to tinker with OS sources.  It is
: 
: Coherent is targeted towards people who want an inexpensive UNIX clone that
: is ready to go.  It has binary compatibility with other SVR3.2 systems.

I agree with Rick 100%.  I collect OS's (in fact, I have to buy some
more machines soon since I have more OS's than machines hehe), and
there's a couple of opinions I'd like to share with you:

Minix: The best for learning about operating systems, but in practical
       use it's a bit difficult.

Linux:  No complaints, but if you lose or don't have FTP access, you're
        sunk.  You can't exactly FTPMail 8 megs of files (well, you
        can but....)

BSD386(ftpable version):  Buggy as all hell

Mach: I'm still trying to compile it ;)

Coherent:  This is my workhorse.  I don't have to worry about bugs -- I
           call tech support.  It is reliable, and I don't have to dig
           around for everything.  Coherent has its own box and is
           up 24hrs a day 7 days a week and I have my mail and news
           going through it.

Amoeba:  Haven't gotten it yet, but hopefully will from school soon.  Needs
         at least 5 386 machines to run it on (it's a distributed system).
         So, I'll fiddle with it, but I won't have it up and running until
         the finances come through.

There are many others, but those are the "clone" ones shall we say.

If you don't care about the internals, want something dependable with
good support you want Coherent.  There's no argument.  The next step for
this kind of stuff would be $1500 for like a SCO w/developers platform
and tons of equipment.

If you want to tinker, I would suggest starting with Minix before you
tackle Linux or Mach (and Amoeba leave til you're into ulcers like I am).

Linux is also good if you want a GUI.  Personally, I leave my GUI's to
OS/2 and MS-Windows where they belong.  I like my *nix with a "$". 

They are all good for different things.  It depends what you want.
But, like I said, for the $$'s and the support and for something you
can depend on with no major bugs (hey, what's an OS w/out bugs?) you
definitely want coherent.  It's much easier than scrounging around
the net for patches.  If you want more features and don't mind doing
legwork and patching yourself, go for linux.  It's also good for tinkering.
If you want to *learn* get Minix and buy Tanenbaum's book.  

So I use all of them with the exception of Linux until I get another machine,
but for daily use and the one I beat on the most is Coherent.  The others
I use to learn about OS's.

Disclaimer:  I don't work for anyone (except Loyola University of Chicago
where I'm a TA) so these are my opinions and i'm not paid for them.  I
recommended coherent the most since I use it the most as an OS.  The rest
I use as learning devices.

-Louis
--
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 Louis J. Giliberto, Jr.   ! magus@drktowr.chi.il.us
   -sysadmin drktowr       ! lgilibe@orion.it.luc.edu
  Chicago, IL  USA         ! 
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