*BSD News Article 59691


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From: aad@nwnet.net (Anthony D'Atri)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: ISP hardware/software choices (performance comparison)
Date: 15 Jan 1996 15:02:14 -0800
Organization: NorthWestNet, Bellevue, WA
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References: <4cmopu$d35@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> <4cu7t0$mg5@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> <4cv8j1$59k@park.uvsc.edu> <4cvjpk$rpf@durban.vector.co.za>
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> Personally, I intentionally associate because I don't think
> that SunOS 5.x is worthy of the name SunOS.

For x=[012], I'd certainly agree.  I'm running two machines with
5.3+lots-o-patches and don't dislike it as much as I used to.  It seems
reasonably stable, and my use of them has avoided some of the uglier bits,
like the bizarro serial-port management stuff.

>Sun would be a small niche-market workstation player if they had not
>overhauled SunOS 4 to SunOS 5/Solaris 2.

That isn't clear.  IMHO, Sun's hop to the SVR4 bandwagon is what tipped the
scales.  I'm not convinced that other vendors (eg., HP & SGI) would have
switched if Sun hadn't.  To me, the biggest intrinsic difference between
SunOS 4 & 5 is that the latter ships with SMP, which is not to say that SVR4
was required for SMP, since vendors like Solbourne & Convex did it with
BSD-ish OS's years ago.

>If you want a multi-billion
>dollar company to slowly strangle itself while pandering just to your
>needs, start it yourself!

Over the last ten years I've seen more than one strangle itself.  One made a
remarkable leapfrogging comeback; another hasn't.