Newsgroups : comp.os.linux.misc From : cninman@netcom.com (Chris Ninman) Subject : Thinking about SCO? Think again. :) Date : Wed, 25 Jan 1995 09:59:51 GMT HTML-Convert : norbert.kuemin@lugs.ch (Norbert Kuemin)I just thought I would post a small advocate message for Linux after a nightmarish situation I had. I usually dont post messages like this as they tend to induce flame wars, but who cares. :) Anyway, this is a rather lengthy but amuzing story, so sit back and have a laugh at my stupididty.
So I get the OS and install it, rather imporessive looking I must say. The documentation blows the doors off Linux hands down, and the sysadmsh shell for system administration is quite impressive! Thats where the smiles ended and frowns start showing up. I now find out that the development kit does not include TCP/IP libs, oh! Thats another package! Only $256 dollars sir. And I find out that TCP/IP is not included in the base unix package. Oh! Thats another package sir! Only $519! Well shit, why would I expect unix to come standard with TCP/IP installed? I mean, its not like I would want to do any networking with my unix machine right?!? *boggle* Ok, I choke that down and find out, whoa! That great support I heard about only costs $256 dollar for 30 days of support! Hey, wow, impressive, I already spent $4,000 on the OS, why would I expect some free support for that investment? *slap me*.
SO I really start poking around in the OS and literally had a malox moment. It comes with NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH, like 0 applications! Oh, sco is too good to support those uncessary, useless and silly apps like elm, pine, pico, emacs, GROFF (of all things to leave out), any roff util, gzip, tcsh, quota, tin, trn, nn, etc, etc, etc. I could go on all day, but you get the point. I had to goto ftp sites and find all these for sco. Ok, thats fair I GUESS, not that I paid 4,000 more than I did for Linux, but whatever I figure.
Cow #2. The keyboard mapping and system colors made me vomit. No support for process suspension, no support for control-c (had to hit delete for it), no support for adding color to the dir trees like Linux comes with pre-configured. No, its not a BIG deal, but its just sloppy. You would think for that kind of money that could put some snazz into the looks of it eh? Think again.
Cow #3. SCO has no support for dynamic PPP or SLIP IP addressing. Linux does, but shit, were talking about a commercial OS here! Why would we support lowly PPP after all? Ok fine, I can take that as the dedicated line is installed in a few weeks.
Cow #4. NFS? Yes sir! Step right up and purchase your NFS suppliment for SCO unix for only $512! Otherwise, your s.o.l. This was a bit much, so I passed for a more comfortable looking toilet. (Dont even ask how much the XWindows stuff costs, I dared not scare my wallet so)
Cow #5. 16 bit inodes? What?!? Your kidding me! (Well, we have it planned for SCO Everest in 95 sir.) Mother of god. Who put this idiotic OS together, Bill Gates? But what if I want to run a news server? (Use 5 partitions and spread it across that sir.) But.. but.. I paid, like, 4,000 for an OS with 16 bit inodes.... SO how do other SCO folks usually handle news without spreading it across 50 million partitoins if you plan to run a larger server? (Most use Linux systems for their news servers sir.) *weeze*
Cow #6. I ask, when I wanna upgrade to more than one machine, is there a more nominal fee for extending the liscence to multiple machines? (No sir, there is not.) Ok, is there a more nominal fee if I want more copies of the os/liscence with no documentation? (Yes, its a whole $100 less.) *groan*
Now that I have a whole basement full of cattle, its time for yet another malox moment. At the rate SCO was giving me heart aches, I would be spending as much money on intestinal-track relaxers as I would be SCO suppliments and support. Don't get me wrong, its a great OS and has some nice features, but it takes 8,000 man hours of installing and mucking with makefiles just to get it to where the Linux install scripts get you in 30 minutes. Oh its more secure than Linux security wise (maybe), as it has Governemt C2 level security and all these nice lockouts and an auditing subsystem that can fill a gig of space in a day. Its more stable than linux because the kernel cannot be modified and thus no user-goofs, its a production system after all. But enuogh is enough, there should be more to it than what you get for THAT kind of money.
Its so non-impressive next to my *free* Linux OS, that I feel as if I have contaminated my Pentium. Well, it is certainly time to flush the contaminants I say. Time to fire up the ol' Barbaque grill and fry up some SCO manuals with a sadistic grin. Time to etch my initals into the bottom of the install CD. Yeah, thats it.
Time to go back to what works, to whats good, to Linux.
Yeah it has its bugs, yeah its documentation is not up to snuff yet, yeah it has a few more security holes. But I'll be damned if I *EVER* spend that kind of money on an OS again if they are anything like SCO. Talk about greed. I now know why Linux has such a following, and more than ever want to support that following after this nightmare. If your thinking about going to a commercial OS, think again. Make sure you know what your getting into, I would not wish this hell on anyone.
In all seriousness, after working with both SCO and Linux, I have the following (probably obvious) suggestions to those that are really making Linux happen, to improve the product and put SCO out of business:
Now if I can just get this damn Adaptec 2940W controller working with my Pentium, I can get down to business with a real OS back onboard, damn thing is giving me greif. *pleading look* (I posted a request for help with the problem earlier today).
Hope you enjoyed the post! Flame me or thank me, I dont care either way, I needed to vent my frustrations about that _other_ accursed OS.
Sincerely,
Kristopher Kortright (Note the actual email address below)