From: sjsobol@wariat.org (Steven J. Sobol)
Subject: Has this newsgroup changed to comp.os.linux.advocacy? (Re: Coherent?)
Followup-To: comp.unix.misc
Organization: The Tiny Software Co., via APK Public Access Unix, Cleveland
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 19:57:47 GMT

Followups re-directed to comp.unix.misc, where this discussion belongs.

davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <moyJRB3w165w@mintir.new-orleans.la.us>, elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley) writes:
>| larry@gator.rn.com (Larry Snyder) writes:
>| 
>| > Why in earth would anyone want to run Coherent with Linux
>| > and BSD386 available?
>
>  Documentation.

and tech support.

>|         1.  Coherent comes with a compiler, in the box.  If you want one for
>  Actually every one of the Linux packages (tamu, mcc, sls) includes the
>compiler and X.

>|         2.  Linux requires you to edit the bootimage just to boot off of your
>|             hard drive.  386BSD warns you up front that the mere act of
>|             starting up the os may trash your hard drive.  This
>  If Coherent doesn't warn you they certainly should. Any product which
>plays with the partition table can trash your existing data. And
Yes, the Coh manual recommends (strongly) that you backup your entire HD 
before installing, but then I've successfully installed Coh/286 AND Coh/386
without trashing anything.
>|         3.  The docs for both Linux and 386BSD, in a word, suck.  Buying
>|             a couple of books that will help a newbie figure out what they're
>|             doing will cost close to a hundred bucks anyway.
>  I have mixed feelings about this, I'm pretty sure you will need a good
>book if you've never used UNIX, even with Coherent. 
Probably, but less likely with Coh than with 386BSD or Linux. 
>  Most of the people using Linux never touch the kernel, they run
>applications (or write them). They also don't contribute to net groups,
>or use a BBS. They get a copy of Linux on disk from someone, install,
>and run. They are usually UNIX experienced, but I've had a number of
>people make do with a set of disks and a book, or a few minutes of setup
>by a guru to insure they login right to the apps they want to run.
>That's true of most commercial UNIX users, too.
>
>  And Linux is in production use in some places, with real business data
>being processed. The Oncology department at Fargo Clinic uses Linux on
>some administrative machines, for instance. 
>
>  I fear that the article you're writing is going to be limited to one
>little product, which doesn't do networking or X and requires a lot more
>computer to run since it lacks virtual memory and shared libraries. In
>short, Linux lacks only documentation, other low cost UNIX systems lack
>features.

Coherent 4.1, the next major update, will do networking. And people are
working on a port of either X or MGR (don't remember which, maybe both).

>  There's no comparison between Linux and something like SCO or Dell,
>but the Dell is just under $1k, and SCO is rather pricey indeed.

With Coherent you get most of the advantages of a major commercial Unix
without the price.

-- Steve --

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