Hi
I posted a question to the comp.unix.osf.osf1 newsgroup a few days
back about the XL series. My question was rather poorly posed in
hindsight, but the jist of it was could DUnix run on the XL series of
workstations, which appear to be for sale at low prices from a number
of resellers, sold on the basis that they're NT (or Linux) boxes. The
answer to this appears to be yes, though a Firmware and base OS
license are required, which may make the cost less attractive.
What has caused most concern though is what hardware is supported, and
what isn't. One vendor is adamant that a Matrox Millennium card is
supported, which he's selling as part of the system, claiming that
both Dunix and VMS have been run on this hardware by customers.
Others that have responded have understood that this is not the case.
The supported hardware list for the XLs has this card as supported
under NT, no mention of support for DUnix at all. Perhaps this is
because Digital aren't really advancing these as DUnix boxes.
For me DUnix support is very important. I'm primarily concerned with
using these as mini number-crunchers, so Fortran compilers are my main
concern, plus X-windows and networking support. Linux compilers are
poor (f2c,g77 and Nag), NT is better but the Digital Fortran product
costs $1000 for alpha, twice what it costs for Intel!, the DEC Unix
compilers are part of DECcampus, and are the also best compilers
around. Plus I like (and know my way around) DUnix!!
I'm thinking of spending my own money here, so it's even more
important than normal that I don't buy something that won't fit the
bill.
Finally another respondent claims 4.0D will offer "support" for these
boards", I presume meaning the PC164LX MTB. Again this causes me some
confusion, as the vendor says these boxes are happily running DUnix
right now? I'm puzzled .....
Cheers
Kev
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| Kevin Maguire Daresbury Laboratory |
| K.Maguire_at_dl.ac.uk Warrington |
| Tel: (01925) 603221 Cheshire |
| Fax: (01925) 603634 United Kingdom |
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Received on Fri Oct 10 1997 - 23:58:13 NZDT