From: Ed Cooley <edc@openage.COM>
Subject: MAC networking: Looking for Solution
Resent-From: mmdf@xenitec.on.ca
Submit-To: scogen@xenitec.on.ca
Organization: [resent by] The SCOGEN gateway and Propagation Society
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 13:57:55 GMT
Precedence: bulk

I recently went through the Mac -> SCO thing with a customer as 
well.  We concentrated on four products Locus' PCI for the Mac, 
Cayman's Gatorbox, Shiva's FastPath 5, and IPT's uShare.

In an attempt to get SCO Marketing's attention on this subject, 
I'd like to start by saying that since so little mention is given 
by SCO towards Mac connectivity it appears that manufacturers of 
SCO-specific Mac products stand no chance of doing anything but 
losing money.  As a result, our customers' options are rapidly 
disappearing.

To shorten the list quickly, IPT's uShare is discontinued.  This 
product emulated an Appleshare server on SCO.  We tried to push 
the product a little at my previous place of employment, but it 
was both priced and marketed badly.  It had the distinct 
advantage of providing SCO drivers for the Farallon Appletalk 
card, as well as working through Appletalk -> Ethernet gateways.

Locus' PCI for the Mac is an extremely promising product, but 
the server backend, which runs on the SCO box, does not work with 
UNIX 3.2.4 or ODT 2.0.  It appears that this is just one of those 
circumstances where the product just isn't making money.  I plead 
ignorance on licensing issues, etc. but I distinctly feel that 
this would be a GREAT piece of functionality to add to the ODT 
Server System (especially at $2495).  We use Macs for our own 
marketing work, and I would bet that at least one third of our 
major accounts have multiple Macs tucked away doing various jobs. 

Cayman Systems has a good deal going with their Gatorbox Classic 
product.  This is an Appletalk to Ethernet converter which used 
to cost between $2K-$3K.  Since they are introducing a new 
Gatorbox line, the Classic product is now available direct for 
$1495.  I believe that the rep also told me that they were 
including Gator Share, which is essentially NFS client support.  
Printing can be accomplished from UNIX to an Appletalk printer 
(not the other way though), but this is even a question since 
Cayman is less than informative of lpr compatibility with SCO.  
If PCI for the Mac is ever brought up to date, it works well with 
this product too.

Shiva makes the FastPath 5 wich is in many ways like the Gatorbox 
with support for every protocol known to man.  It too is fairly 
expensive, but is probably worth the money if the customer has 
more than a few Macs.  They do not include NFS client support, 
but recommend the NFS Share product.  Mac vendors always find a 
way to get the cost per seat near a million dollars somehow.  
There were no suggestions from Shiva for print services support.

If SCO is going to compete with Sun they'll need to find a way to 
address this segment of the market - I believe Apple does hold a 
20% share or so.  The PCI for the Mac support would be a likely 
candidate for including with the ODT Server System in my view.  
Afterall, if SCO is going to attempt to compete with the Novells 
and Microsofts of the world for enterprise-wide integration they 
will have to realize how important this subject is to many 
customers.


> I have a customer who is looking for a clean way to connect 
> MAC's, SCO ODT Server, and DOS PC's into a semblance of Peer to 
> Peer to connectivity; that is, he wants each of the MACs to be 
> visible to the other MACs as well as the ODT Server.  I'm not at 
> all sure what product fits the bill here.

> BTW:  Apparently LOCUS is not have a huge sales success with the 
> SCO ODT PCI<->MACINTOSH solution and it is back burnered for the 
> moment.  In fact, it currently does not work on ODT 2.0 (only on 
> ODT 1.1).  I really like the PCI product.  It installs easily and 
> the documentation is very uncluttered.  I'd use the MAC version 
> in a moment if I was not afraid it might become an orphan.


> ================================================================================
> Lee Penn,  DLP Technologies, Inc.                     Voice: 513 232-7791
> SCO Advanced Product Center                           FAX: (513) 232-7801
> 7444 Jager Ct.
> Cincinnati, OH  45230-4344                           email: lee@dlpco.COM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed Cooley           12209 Bayswater Road    "An independent service and
Technical Manager   Gaithersburg, MD 20878   support provider for SCO
Open Age, Inc.      Main: 301/948-6422       products."
edc@openage.com     Fax:  301/948-9644

Newsgroups: biz.sco.general