Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #613
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Mon, 15 Aug 94 18:13:09 EDT

Linux-Misc Digest #613, Volume #2                Mon, 15 Aug 94 18:13:09 EDT

Contents:
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (Martin Sohnius)
  Speed of MSW binaries under MSW vs. WABI/WINE? (Ajay Shah)
  Re: booting in a system with both IDE and SCSI using Boot Manager (Dan Newcombe)
  Will HP 35480 DAT Tape Drive work under linux? (Anthony Giancola)
  Re: starting X automatically on installing linux distribution (Michael Cook)
  Right, Paradise HELP! (Gino D. Ranieri)
  D-Link DE 220 Ethernet Cards ( THE NUT AND BOLT)
  Threads, hardware access from Linux? (Ken Geis)
  Re: comp.os.linux.hardware.* (Dave Sill)
  Re: comp.os.linux.hardware.* (Dave Sill)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (Martin Sohnius)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (Martin Sohnius)
  FAX software available? (Wayne Berke)
  source for NE2100/AT1500 clones? (the stupid one)
  Re: Linux Inside T-Shirts (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (David Harding)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (David Wright)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (David Wright)
  Re: UPSes and Linux:  Interface details and NDAs (Deltec) (David Wright)
  Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows? (David Harding)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.unixware
From: msohnius@novell.co.uk (Martin Sohnius)
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:27:26 GMT

J.J. Paijmans (paai@kub.nl) wrote:
: In article <CuFEK7.GLn@novell.co.uk> msohnius@novell.co.uk (Martin Sohnius) writes:
: >[ post and followups to a subset of the UNIX world only ]
: ...
: >
: >Jim may be in the business of selling systems which involve UnixWare as a
: >platform, but he is certainly not in the business of providing free review
: >copies.  I distincly remember sending Hans Paijmans an email pointing this
: >out, and with a contact address for getting such a copy.
: >

: If you did, I didn't receive it. Could you please send it again?

OK, let's try again.  Write to or phone (+44-344-724000) either Lalit
Nathwani (lnathwan@novell.com) or Raj Panesar (rpanesar@novell.com).
They are in "Brand Marketing" and responsible for UnixWare, mainly
in the UK, but I think lately also for parts of Europe.  If they
can't help you (because you may be "out of region"), they'll certainly
be able to get you the correct name/address for Benelux.

(I also know that no Computer mag I know pays for review copies:  they are
not as rich as the New York Times, I suppose.  It's just that this is not
entirely unheard of :-)

Regards,


                        +--------------------------------------------+
Martin Sohnius          | "It doesn't matter whether the cat is      |
Novell Labs Europe      |  black or white, as long as it catches     |
Bracknell, England      |  mice."      - Deng Xiaoping               |
+44-1344-724031          +--------------------------------------------+
                        (I speak for myself, not for Novell or anyone else.)

------------------------------

From: ajayshah@almaak.usc.edu (Ajay Shah)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.solaris,comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Speed of MSW binaries under MSW vs. WABI/WINE?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 11:11:22 -0700

Do MSW binaries run faster (on identical hardware) under Unix
with WABI|WINE as compared with running under MSW 3.x?

A friend of mine claims the underlying display functions of X can't
be faster than those of MSW 3.x.

I can think of one way in which MSW 3.1 binaries would run faster
under emulation under Unix-for-x86 than under MSW: all access to the
file system go through a Unix file system instead of Microsoft genius.
Also, the entire paradigm of memory management is transformed. Under
Unix, you get to basically take memory out of a Unix malloc and show
it to MSW program.  This gives other benefits like swapping out LRU
pages, dynamically using free memory as cache, etc.

Has someone does some systematic testing?  Sun is said to have showed
some neat demos at fairs.  Are these for real or are they rigged?

Thanks,

        -ans.
-- 
Ajay Shah, (213)749-8133, ajayshah@rcf.usc.edu

------------------------------

From: newcombe@aa.csc.peachnet.edu (Dan Newcombe)
Subject: Re: booting in a system with both IDE and SCSI using Boot Manager
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 14:09:03 UNDEFINED

In article <32nrm3$6h7@news.intelsat.int> mintz@news.intelsat.int (Larry Mintz) writes:
>: If I have two drives:
>: IDE with Linux and DOS
>: SCSI with OS/2 and DOS,

>: where should I place my OS/2 boot manager so that I can boot and access all
>: by OS'es?
>I believe that in all systems with both IDE and SCSI interfaces that the IDE
>interface takes precedence, therefore, boot manager should reside on the IDE
>drive rather than the SCSI drive.

Correct.  The problem I am having though is getting boot manager to recognize 
the SCSI drive.  When the SCSI BIOS starts up (Adaptec 1542) it tells me it 
couldn't install the BIOS because there are no INT 13h devices.   Though, if I 
disable my two IDE drives via CMOS, it installs the BIOS fine, but then goes 
straight to the first SCSI drive, and bypasses the Boot Manager.

Anyone?
        -Dan


--
Dan Newcombe                    newcombe@aa.csc.peachnet.edu
Clayton State College           Morrow, Georgia
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"And the man in the mirror has sad eyes."       -Marillion

------------------------------

From: giancola@chaco.cs.unm.edu (Anthony Giancola)
Subject: Will HP 35480 DAT Tape Drive work under linux?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 16:28:05 GMT

I am looking at backup devices and I can find no mention of the
HP 35480 DAT drive as working under linux. This is a SCSI-2 2G byte
tape drive.  Does anyone have any experience with this drive?

Thanks in advance,

Anthony J. Giancola
giancola@cs.unm.edu

------------------------------

From: chiefs@cis.ksu.edu (Michael Cook)
Subject: Re: starting X automatically on installing linux distribution
Date: 15 Aug 94 17:28:20 GMT

sujat@shasta.ee.umn.edu (Sujat Jamil) writes:

>In article <$oiJkukh1iK0069yn@shore.net>,
>Beverly J. Brown <bjb@shore.net> wrote:
>>...
>>novice who is dismayed that he can't put xclock in the upper right corner of 
>>the screen and expects it to be there the next time he starts X.


>Right, again.  Simple abstractions, like "Save current layout", would
>make life much easier for the beginner.

Not to mention the simplicity and convenience it adds for a user of
any level.  I know how to edit the files to get the configuration I
want, but it's still a hassle to do it, compared to the previously
described method.  Note that even with the hassles, I prefer X hands
down.

- Mick
-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-    |   
||  Michael Cook                                     ||  --+--
||  chiefs@cis.ksu.edu  msc@matt.ksu.edu             ||    |
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-    |    Romans 8

------------------------------

From: stingray@csuohio.edu (Gino D. Ranieri)
Subject: Right, Paradise HELP!
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 18:30:59 GMT



        I am the fortunate of a group to guinea pig and firetest Linux
gear before passing it through to the others in my cluster.  Problem is,
I have a Paradise Video card and want to run tinyX on it.  It loads up,
get the grey screen and black X then craps out, calling broken
pipe errors..  Any ideas how I can fix this?


                                                        StingrayE

------------------------------

From: nutbolt@alcor.concordia.ca ( THE NUT AND BOLT )
Subject: D-Link DE 220 Ethernet Cards
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 18:57:17 GMT


I am interested in purchasing D-Link's DE 220 Ethernet cards.  Could
anyone tell me if they are supported under Linux.  I read the Ethernet HOWTO
but I could not really tell if Linux liked these cards.  I am interested
in these cards because of the price, but if I have to spend the money I
save on headache pills, then I would rather buy 3-Com's 3C509.

Thanks for you help.

      The Nut and Bolt
      Newsletter of the Engineering and Computer Science Association
      Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

-- 
      The Nut and Bolt
      Newsletter of the Engineering and Computer Science Association
      Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

------------------------------

From: kgeis@ucsee.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Geis)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Threads, hardware access from Linux?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:45:52 GMT


        Hi.  I have a couple of questions about what can be done in C/C++
on Linux.
        First, I want to be able to call a function and do something else
while that function is being run.  Let's say that function waits on some
I/O to happen.  I have my ideas on how to get this to work, and I know
I'm being a bit vague, but does anyone have any experience with this?
        Second, can particular memory addresses be accesed cleanly from C?
I want to do I/O direct with a card I'm putting together.  More importantly,
though, is there a good way to handle interrupts?

Thanks for the help,

        Ken

------------------------------

From: de5@de5.CTD.ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: comp.os.linux.hardware.*
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:39:22 GMT

In article <NILS.94Aug11121309@wildcat.dartmouth.edu>, nils@cs.dartmouth.edu (Nils Nieuwejaar) writes:
>
>First off, I don't think there are enough hardware issues which are
>linux-specific (or even x86 unix-specific) to warrant 5 new groups.
>_Maybe_ one group, but I would have to be convinced of that.

Given that the volume of traffic is approximately 10 times higher than
what I consider reasonable, and that at least half of it is
hardware-related, I'd say 5 is about right.  :-)  But seriously, if we
break it down logically and put it to a vote, if there's not enough
interest to justify, e.g., comp.os.linux.hardware.sound, then that group
wouldn't be created.  No big deal--discussion of sound cards would just
move to comp.os.linux.hardware.misc.

>       comp.os.linux.hardware.video
>          Which boards do/don't work.  How to configure them for XFree86.
>
>There is already a group for this: comp.windows.x.i386unix

Cool, I didn't know about that one.  Unfortunately the name is terribly
misleading--that's why I never discovered it.  But c.w.x.i386unix isn't
Linux-specific, and, IMO, Linux is big enough to warrant it's own video
hardware group.

>       comp.os.linux.hardware.systems
>          Which PC's do/don't run Linux.  What tweaks are required.  Will
>          also cover other architectures if/when Linux is ported to
>          them.
>
>This would probably be an exercise in futility.  There are far too
>many small vendors for there to be much common interest in any of
>them, and any linux-specific problems with systems from big vendors
>(e.g. Dell, IBM, Gateway, etc) will affect so many people that trying
>to confine the discussion to a single, 5th level group would be
>hopeless.

Perhaps, but it's an exercise in futility that's being done very
frequently in comp.os.linux.help and comp.os.linux.misc.  At least with
c.o.l.h.systems, it could be focused.

>       comp.os.linux.hardware.sound    (*)
>          More of the same, for PC sound cards mostly.
>       comp.os.linux.hardware.cd-rom
>          You get the idea.
>       comp.os.linux.hardware.misc
>          Other peripherals like printers, mice, tape drives, etc.
>
>These three groups would probably be full of articles crossposted to
>c.o.l.h. and the corresponding c.s.ibm.pc.hardware groups.

I don't see any problem with xposts to c.s.ibm.pc.hardware groups--though
I'd expect few responses from people that don't also read the Linux
groups.  I don't know why people would xpost to comp.os.linux.help with
a more targetted group available, though.  They'd probably just get
flooded with responses like "try comp.os.linux.hardware.cd-rom, silly".

>Furthermore, even if there weren't a lot of crossposting, it would be
>very surprising if the content of the bulk of posts to these groups
>was at all linux-specific.  They would become the default groups for
>all hardware questions by people who happen to use linux, and they
>would be filled with 'How do I set the DIP switches?' and 'Which is
>the fastest tape drive?'.

Um, that's exactly what I'd expect them to be used for.  What did you have
in mind?

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Workstation Support
URL http://www.dec.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/html/dsill.html

------------------------------

From: de5@de5.CTD.ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: comp.os.linux.hardware.*
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:41:20 GMT

In article <32e56c$mjt@csnews.cs.Colorado.EDU>, drew@frisbee.cs.Colorado.EDU (Drew Eckhardt) writes:
>
>Judging by the amount of hardware traffic, I don't think that 
>at this point a whole set of hardware groups is needed, and 
>suggest that starting with a single hardware subgroup be tried
>for this reason.

You must be reading a different comp.os.linux.help than I am.  :-)

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Workstation Support
URL http://www.dec.com/pub/DEC/DECinfo/html/dsill.html

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.unix.unixware
From: msohnius@novell.co.uk (Martin Sohnius)
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:44:22 GMT

Dan Pop (danpop@cernapo.cern.ch) wrote:

: At some point, Novell spread some vaporware about Corsair. Any news
: about this project?

Now this is a new brilliant twist:  some mag in the States prints rumours
about a project, this is then widely discussed in various newsgroups,
reprinted in every something-or-other-X newssheet, everybody even remotely
connected to Novell repeatedly  and consistently denies it, and now we hear
that "Novell spread some vapourware" !!

"Vapourware," in my book, is software that was announced, or at least
promised, but failed to materialise.  When and where did Novell announce
a product called Corsair?

: >: Your customers are completely irrelevant to Linux and its future.
: >
: >No they aren't.  Their personal and corporate taxes are paying for the
: >better part of Linux development.  

: For a part of Linux development, maybe. Can you prove it's the better
: part? And anyway, I'm ready to bet that if they had the choice, they
: wouldn't pay for it :-) So, they continue to be completely irrelevant to
: Linux and its future.

Until they find out what's happening to their tax dollars - and if what you
say is true, that "if they had the choice they wouldn't pay for it,"  they
might just write to their Congressperson or Member of Parliament.  It is
very dangerous for the scientific community as a whole to appear too smug
when dealing with Joe Public.  Do you really want to cut the branch upon
which you are sitting?  It is in this context that I referred to the
status of CERN personnel.

--
                        +--------------------------------------------+
Martin Sohnius          | "It doesn't matter whether the cat is      |
Novell Labs Europe      |  black or white, as long as it catches     |
Bracknell, England      |  mice."      - Deng Xiaoping               |
+44-1344-724031          +--------------------------------------------+
                        (I speak for myself, not for Novell or anyone else.)

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.unixware
From: msohnius@novell.co.uk (Martin Sohnius)
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:52:11 GMT

Neil Dunbar (neil@riscot.demon.co.uk) wrote:

: Of course, using Linux instead of SCO, Unixware et al, removes the
: uncertainty of what happens if SCO, Novell and Sun were all to go
: belly up .... ;-)

To lay some real flame-bait:  and what if the opposite happens, and all the
people who support/write Linux code suddenly found themselves real-world
full-time jobs?  (Those of you who actually are out of a job, please don't
be too offended:  I know the difference - I've been there!)

--
                        +--------------------------------------------+
Martin Sohnius          | "It doesn't matter whether the cat is      |
Novell Labs Europe      |  black or white, as long as it catches     |
Bracknell, England      |  mice."      - Deng Xiaoping               |
+44-1344-724031          +--------------------------------------------+
                        (I speak for myself, not for Novell or anyone else.)

------------------------------

From: berke@panix.com (Wayne Berke)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: FAX software available?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 20:01:33 GMT

I am considering a PD UNIX and one of the factors in my choice will be
what kind of FAX software (not necessarily free) there will be available.

A quick search of the FAQs:

        *BSD does not mention anything.

        Linux mentions "several fax (using class 2 modems)" packages but
        does not name them.

Thank you in advance for any info.
--
Wayne Berke
berke@panix.com

------------------------------

From: warren@wam.umd.edu (the stupid one)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,misc.forsale.computers.pc-clone
Subject: source for NE2100/AT1500 clones?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 20:53:25 GMT


        I've been looking for these for a while now, and the only place
I've found 'em wants $65(US)@, +shipping,etc.  (National or Nationwide
something or other, I don't remember precisely, they advertise in Comp.
Shopper.)  Any better deals, horror stories, glowing praise, whatever?
Cards known to work with Linux a plus.


                                         thanx
                                             w

-- 
Warren Bosworth Focke

 - Bela Lugosi's dead, Jim!

------------------------------

From: jalali@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Mehrdad Jalali Sohi)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Linux Inside T-Shirts
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:51:15 GMT

MATTHEW TIPPETT (9208033h@levels.unisa.edu.au) wrote:
: Just as an aside, if you look carefully at the Linux Inside Logo, on the
: inside part of the loop, you can see some white pixels, in the solid area.
: This came from the (R) registered trademark from intel....

Hi there! Can this loge be found an a ftp somewhere? Would be nice to print
a sticker for my computer case... (-:

Type ya,
--
/======================================\
| Olav "Mac" Woelfelschneider          |
| wosch@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de |
+--------------------------------------+
| I refuse to grow up,                 |
| I don't want to lose my humor...     |
\======================================/

------------------------------

From: evanc@bkanhf.bnr.ca (David Harding)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.unix.unixware
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:13:12 GMT

Mark A. Davis (mark@taylor.infi.net) wrote:
: How long have you used SCO for anything real?  We have been using it for
: years.  We have millions of dollars worth of information riding on it.
: We have *NEVER* had a corruption or crash.

At synapse.net, we use both UnixWare and SCO systems to provide Internet
access to customers.  We have had SCO for about 2 years and UnixWare for
about 6 months.

Up until recently, we had SCO doing everything and UnixWare just as a test
environment.

Then our users started complaining about performance.  The system was just
plain slow, to the point where transfers would not work properly (not even
Xmodem).

So we did things like move the news server and the nameserver to UnixWare.
The system was still horribly slow.  So we moved *everything* except our
Uniboard system to UnixWare.

SCO is now fast enough for transfers to work properly, and UnixWare doesn't
even show signs of strain.

The routing tables don't work properly for SLIP/PPP, which meant that I
could not do routing for entire networks if clients had their own nets
using us as their gateway to the Internet.

Every time the system crashed (not as infrequent as you made it out to be)
or if the power was out for longer than the UPS lasted, we always had
corruption. 

The utilities that came with SCO (ie: chown, rm, sed, etc.) are archaic and
had to be replaced with their GNU equivalents.

Getting rid of SCO is one of my greatest accomplishments as sysadmin at
synapse.net.  It has made me a lot happier, because I can administer the
system much more easily, and it doesn't take hours upon hours to get
programs to compile like it did on SCO.  Everything usually compiles on the
first shot and works just fine.

So now we're working on getting Uniboard ported to SVR4.2 (it currently
doesn't support 32 bit inodes which we need for reading our news drive, a
1.8 GB drive which under SCO had to be split up in to 5-6 smaller partitions
due to inode restrictions).  And then there will be celebration.

UnixWare is faster, cheaper, more user-friendly, more sysadmin-friendly,
and just plain better than SCO.  When my customers ask me about buying UNIX
systems, I always tell them that UnixWare is the best PC UNIX I've used, but
if it came down to it, I'd rather see them use Linux or FreeBSD/NetBSD than
SCO.  I can honestly say that I would too.

Evan

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.unix.unixware
From: dmw@prism1.prism1.com (David Wright)
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:34:35 GMT

=====BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE=====

>>>>> "MAD" == Mark A Davis <mark@taylor.infi.net> writes:

  MAD> mike@hobbit.hum.port.ac.uk (Mike Meredith) writes:
  >> Peter Wiley - Poultry (peter@prospect.anprod.csiro.au) wrote:

  >> Do you know about the patches that will allow Linux to run SCO Unix 
  >> binaries ? I haven't tried them myself, so I don't know how useful they 
  >> are, but if they work well it should be possible to run Informix, Oracle, 
  >> etc.

        It does work.

  >> Of course the main use for a Linux box today is probably to off-load 
  >> applications that can run under Linux - WWW servers, Gopher servers, 
  >> mail, news, development, etc. This would leave more CPU power for running 
  >> databases.

  MAD> I agree with that sentiment.  It is an ideal use for a Linux box in a
  MAD> commercial environment if one feels skittish.

        Of course, the "better" (or even "existant") support by SCO is (IMHO)
only an illusion. We are (currently) primarily an SCO shop, but we (I) are
looking at replacing SCO with Linux. For the most part the ONLY reason we
have not is that a typical customer of ours is getting 4-8 intelligent ports
(mainly Specialix now) and there is no driver to support them under Linux yet.
        Linux is *every* bit as stable as SCO from an OS level (if you stick
to the 1.0.x versions). I can tell you from experience I feel more confident
about getting support for a problem I encounter under Linux than for any
kind of help/support from SCO. Paying big $$$ for SCO buys you *nothing*.

                                                Dave

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--
  ____________________________________________________________________________
 |        /\ /          | Prism Computer Applications        |  David Wright  |
 |      -/--\--         | 14650 Detroit Ave, Suite LL40      | dmw@Prism1.COM |
 |      /____\          | Lakewood, OH 44107  USA            |  216-228-1400  |

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.unix.unixware
From: dmw@prism1.prism1.com (David Wright)
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:55:35 GMT

=====BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE=====

>>>>> "MAD" == Mark A Davis <mark@taylor.infi.net> writes:

  MAD> I wrote that originally to make a point to those who would 1) bash other
  MAD> Unixes without knowing anything about them  and 2) think that Linux can just
  MAD> be a drop in replacement for commercial Unixes.  Both are pipe dreams.
  MAD> There may be a point in the future when Linux can do just that, but 
  MAD> certainly not now.  Like probably the majority of home/work Unixers, I
  MAD> use a commercial Unix at work and Linux at home.  It makes little since to
  MAD> use SCO at home or Linux at work (at least for me/us).

        Whether you can use Linux in a "drop in replacement" mode depends on
how familiar your clients are with Unix. When we set up a system here the
users never SEE a Unix prompt. They are told how to start & stop the machine,
what userid's to use at the login prompt, and they go about their business.
The only software that they run on the box is our software, WordPerfect,
Lotus, DBase IV, or software from one of the companies we work with
directly.
        In these kind of situations it makes little difference whether they
are running SCO, UnixWare, or Linux. And Linux (at least the 1.0.x kernels I
have used) is definately at the point where it is stable enough to be used
commercially. If a client will be doing their own on-site system administration
then SCO might be a better choice. But as I do all (or almost all) of the
sysadmin work for all of our clients, and do it via modem, it is again
irrelevant whether they are SCO or Linux.
        I can't *wait* for Linux to support intelligent I/O cards, preferably
the Specialix line, since that is really the only thing holding me back from
using it as a base of our future systems.
        Consider that if you have Linux installed you can COUNT on having
networking installed (not one of our existing clients has TCP/IP or NFS
installed, since SCO reams you for both of them, and they are strictly needed).
Because networking is installed I can then use SLIP/PPP to get multiple
sessions on the remote sites without installing FacetTerm, and I can
up/download while doing something else (which you can't do even with
FacetTerm). There is also the option of mounting their filesystem via NFS and
doing work that way. Plus, the other person who does sysadmin work here can
help out and work on the problem at the same time over the same serial link.

                                                Dave


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--
  ____________________________________________________________________________
 |        /\ /          | Prism Computer Applications        |  David Wright  |
 |      -/--\--         | 14650 Detroit Ave, Suite LL40      | dmw@Prism1.COM |
 |      /____\          | Lakewood, OH 44107  USA            |  216-228-1400  |

------------------------------

From: dmw@prism1.prism1.com (David Wright)
Subject: Re: UPSes and Linux:  Interface details and NDAs (Deltec)
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 18:11:38 GMT

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>>>>> "BSA" == Brandon S Allbery <bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org> writes:

  BSA> requires an NDA to get the information.  In dumb mode, you can receive a
  BSA> signal when power fails and send a signal to turn off the UPS after system
  BSA> shutdown, or use it to switch external devices on loss of AC and/or low
  BSA> battery (this is non-RS-232; a common is tied to the appropriate pins on the
        BEST provides this info, and has one set of NO/NC switches which
alternate when the inverter kicks on (basic power outage) and another set which
trip when any alarm condition occurs (low battery, over temp, etc).

  BSA> thing if anyone wants it... but I'd prefer to find that the BEST Fortress or
  BSA> some other UPS actually has details on its smart mode available without an
  BSA> NDA.
        Best also provides the full info on the RS-232 "command" mode where you
get a prompt, type in a command, and get a response back from the UPS. In
fact, the UPS has on-line help for the commands built-in. What I did for my
MicroFerups ME500 was to make a cable that plugged onto the back of the UPS
and then had two plugs coming out of it. One that went to the joystick port
(for the two switch-type contacts) and one that went to a free serial port
on my machine (so I could "log on" to the UPS and issue commands, change
parameters, etc.).

        They DO sell software (for which the source is provided, again with
no NDA) that will talk to the UPS if you can't come up with something to do
this on your own.

        Let me know if you need more info. All the commands & response
format are listed right in the owners manual, and I could probably send you a
copy.

                                                        Dave

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--
  ____________________________________________________________________________
 |        /\ /          | Prism Computer Applications        |  David Wright  |
 |      -/--\--         | 14650 Detroit Ave, Suite LL40      | dmw@Prism1.COM |
 |      /____\          | Lakewood, OH 44107  USA            |  216-228-1400  |

------------------------------

From: evanc@bkanhf.bnr.ca (David Harding)
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.hp,comp.sys.hp.apps,comp.sys.sun.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.apps,comp.unix.unixware
Subject: Re: WABI vs. SoftWindows?
Date: 15 Aug 1994 19:15:26 GMT

Martin Sohnius (msohnius@novell.co.uk) wrote:
: Standalone, you were probably root. Other users are not.
: Root errors are serious, others are not (or should not be).
: What does Linux say when you do

:       # rm -r / tmp

I don't know what it says, but I know that on my SCO system, it wiped out
the root directory and then said that tmp was a directory.  Yes, I have
done this before :-)

Evan

------------------------------


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