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- Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix.sco
- Path: sparky!uunet!drd!pensoft!jac
- From: jac@pensoft.uucp (James A. Carter)
- Subject: Re: Xenix considered harmful (was Re: SCO support - a success story)
- Organization: James Carter & Associates
- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 92 22:38:12 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Sep13.223812.5968@pensoft.uucp>
- References: <9209121328.AA27146@dynamix.com>
- Lines: 39
-
- Gentlemen,
- I have been following your discussion sic argument concerning the proper
- use, client base, mailer, and management style for a Xenix/286 system versus
- the Unix systems, and to put it bluntly...you are basically arguing the same
- points. Xenix/286 is loosing 3rd party vendor support because of the market,
- not because it is un-needed. When the vendors started selling the 386 cpu's
- for single digit percentages more than a fast 286, the death knell was
- sounded for most of the 286 specific software. The support prices have gotten
- higher because more and more clients are moving into the 386 (and 486)
- arenas as they wear out older 286 (and 8088) hardware. There just isn't
- enough price differential to prevent them from moving past the 286 platforms.
-
- My first copy of Xenix was named Xenix/11, which attempted to run on a
- DEC PDP11/24, albeit very poorly. However, at the time late 70's, that's all
- there was folks. As "The Santa Cruz Operation" changed their name to SCO and
- moved their Xenix onto the 286 platform, I like many others followed...the
- maintenance expense on the PDP was getting out of hand. When they moved on
- to the 386 chipset, I followed again because there were specific tasks that
- I wanted to be able to do, and again the expense of maintaining the old 286
- box, got out of hand. I had a 3B box for a while between these other two,
- and found significant enough differences between the administration of the
- Unix vs. Xenix, that I once again brought the Xenix system back on line.
-
- As the Xenix toolset becomes more and more available on Unix, and as
- more and more of the Unix functionality becomes available on Xenix, we will
- probably see the demise of Xenix, especially the older versions. (You can't
- even get support for my old Xenix/11 anymore).
-
- So I propose questions of my own...why spend our time arguing whether
- one system is better than another, or whether one is dying out and another
- isn't? Wouldn't everyone, general public and end users alike, be better
- served if we all worked to make the eventual transition happen as transparent
- as possible?
-
- Sincerely...
- --
- ===============================================================================
- James A. Carter / Sapulpa, Oklahoma, USA No disclaimer necessary, I own
- (918) 224-6522 the company!
-