From: mln@sunkj.larc.nasa.gov (Michael Nelson)
Subject: Re: OSF/1 vs SVR4 (and others)
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 14:54:30 GMT

The latest version of the table.  Corrections/additions etc. are *very* encouraged.
Remember, this table was originally based on DEC propaganda.  The attempt here
is not to push DEC or anyone else, but gather some reasonably objective data
regarding the following OSs.

If you are being cited as a source, please make sure that what I say you said is
what you meant to say.

Thanks for everyone's contributions.

Michael Nelson
----
original DEC info from: evans@zk3.dec.com (Marc Evans)

Vendor                          DEC     SUN     HP      IBM     USL
OS                              OSF/1   Solaris HP-UX   AIX     Sys V
Version                         1.0     1.0     8.0     3.2     4      6
Available                       now     now     now     now     now
OS
  Kernel base                   OSF/1   BSD     BSD     AIX     SVR4
  disk mirroring                yes     opt     opt     yes     add-on*
  multi-disk volumes            yes     opt     no      yes     add-on*
  on-line partition growth      yes     opt     no      yes     add-on*
  kernel threads                yes     2.0     no      no      SVR4 MP 1
  memory mapped files           yes     yes     no      yes     yes
  realtime extensions           yes     no      yes     yes     yes
  shared libraries              yes     yes     yes     yes     yes
  external pagers               yes     no      no      no      no
  streams                       yes     yes     no      yes     yes  6
  sockets                       yes     yes     yes     yes     yes
  OSF/1 kernel commitment       yes     no      yes     yes     APIs
  run-time dynamic linking      yes     yes     yes?    yes?    yes  1

Standards
  OSF/Motif                     yes     3rd     yes     yes     3rd  1 3
  OSF/AES                       yes     no      soon    yes     soon 6
  XPG3 base branding            yes     yes     yes     yes     yes
  POSIX 1003.1                  yes     yes     yes     yes     yes
  Security level                B-1 #   C-2 #   ?       ?       B-2 2 3

Software Development
  Integrated CASE Tools         yes     yes     yes     yes     no   6
  ANSI C Compiler               yes     opt     yes     yes     yes  1
  C++ Support                   summer  opt     opt     yes     opt  6
  Compound Document Arch.       yes     no      no      no      no
  OSF/DCE                       start   3rd     soon    soon    soon
  COFF                          ?       ?       ?       yes     yes 4
  ELF -Dwarf                    ?       ?       ?       ?       yes 4
  /proc                         ?       ?       ?       ?       yes 4

Other
  Runs DOS & windows apps       3rd     yes     3rd     some    some    2 3 6
  SNA support                   yes     yes     ?       yes     3rd (?) 2 5 6
  Architected for SMP           yes     2.0     ?       ?       SVR4 MP 2 1
  SMP available                 soon    2.0     ?       ?       SVR4 MP 2 1

1 from guy@Auspex.COM (Guy Harris)

2 from wagner@utoday.com (Mitch Wagner)

3 from ry@usl.com (Ryerson Schwark)

4 from andrew@uel.co.uk (Andrew Josey)

5 mjo@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Mike O'Connor)

6. drake@drake.almaden.ibm.com (Sam Drake)

*USL defines an add-on as a feature which may be layered on top of
existing functionality and released without completely re-releasing the
entire operating system.

2.0 stands for for Solaris 2.X (not delivered yet)

# stands for CMW "soon" (CMW is a secure standard for windowing)

3rd stands for 3rd party.

opt stand for optional.

start stands for starter kit.

yes? looks like it does something real similar, but maybe not be as
     powerful as a "real" run-time dynamic linking.