11 ms·

Coherent: Unix variant for DOS compatible PCs (1994) [pdf]

81 points by ColinWright 6y ago

ColinWright 6y ago
From the Mastodon comment[0] where I found this: "COHERENT was a UNIX variant for DOS compatible PCs and this is the 1409 page document that will teach you everything. "This document assumes you've never used a computer much less UNIX and walks you through installation, configuration, how logging in works, basic usage, using text editors, basic and advanced administration, network administrator and eventually topics including programming! "You walk in a baby and walk out a C programming UNIX wizard, all on your 286 with 2MB of ram." -- penny, @penny@cute.science [0] https://mathstodon.xyz/web/statuses/104720370803968311 https://mathstodon.xyz/web/statuses/104720370803968311
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
  Manuals: https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/coherent/ftp/manuals/ https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/coherent/ftp/manuals/
homarp 6y ago
previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21200902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21200902 now open sourced at http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php
- ColinWright 6y ago
  Fabulous ... thank you.
simonblack 6y ago
Thank you Coherent. And thank you to all the guys/girls that used to work at the Mark Williams Company. Coherent opened my eyes to the world of UNIX. 30 years later, and I have never yet used Windows as my every-day desktop.
icedchai 6y ago
I used to run Coherent back when I was in high school. I ran it on a 386SX with 3 megs of RAM (yes, odd number.) I later installed SLS Linux on that same machine. The Coherent documentation was amazing. I still remember that huge book...
cowmix 6y ago
Coherent made a fatal choice at the wrong time. Mark Williams Company started to ramp up their marketing right before Linux really started to his. When they had to make a choice to add either XWindows or a TCP/IP stack to Coherent, they chose XWindows. Coherent could have been a great Internet OS at the dawn of the commercialization of the Internet but they blew it.
- derekp7 6y ago
  A buddy at work used to work for MWC, and always talks about what might have been. This, among other stories...
- zerr 6y ago
  Isn't Linux being free (including as in beer) one of the main reasons of Coherent fail?
  - arexxbifs 6y ago
    In the mid-90s, downloading Linux wasn't feasible for most people and getting a manual with the install media was a plus because you couldn't just google for help the same way you can today. But I guess Coherent could have been competitive for no more than a few years, at best.
    - anthk 6y ago
      In the mid-90's you have Slackware 96.
      - xbar 6y ago
        And books like Linux Unleashed with Slackware CDs included.
    - icedchai 6y ago
      I remember going to a "Linux install fest" at a local ISP. We downloaded all of the SLS Linux floppies over a 56K leased line! This was late 1993 or early 1994, I think.
humbledude 6y ago
I can't overstate how great Coherent and this pale green book were. It was a complete UNIX experience and taught me valuable skills that I use to this day. The manual is probably the best organized and most comprehensive one that I've seen for ANY software to this day. I still don't know how Mark Williams Company pulled off this amazing feat with such limited resources. To anyone who was involved with its production - thank you and much respect.
- vmilner 6y ago
  Similar with me. I was loving using UNIX at work on Suns ~1991/2, but it wasn't until I borrowed a PC with Coherent for a few weeks that I really was able to explore it properly, both in the sense of being to work as root, and having this excellent book. I was sad when I had to give the PC back, until Linux hit the scene a little while later.
nrclark 6y ago
Advent of Computing did a great podcast about Coherent recently. For anybody who's interested, I'd recommend checking it out: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coherent-is-not-unix/id1459202600?i=1000474914279 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coherent-is-not-unix/i...
unixhero 6y ago
It is such a marvel of cosmic luck that Linus Torvalds could not afford to buy this for his computer.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Even more luck that BSD was being sued, while Linus decided to use GPL.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    I was flirting with setting up my own server with bsd386 in the 90s. The main thing stopping me was money: I had the offer of free rack space at my old college's network but my income was low enough relative to the cost of building a server (and a rackmount case) that I never pulled the trigger. My 20-something self would be envious of the amount of computing power I have within arm's reach right now.
- vmilner 6y ago
  Linus's Jan 1992 post on comp.os.coherent is interesting: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.coherent/c/3dSbdErXdUc/m/uoBUzk9NEEsJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.coherent/c/3dSbdErXdUc/m...
rbanffy 6y ago
I remember one of the reviews, where the reviewer complained he couldn't get uucp working between Coherent and a Unix box and he suggested it be called "cccp" (Coherent to Coherent Copy Program) instead. edit: s/could/couldn't/
- ColinWright 6y ago
  Typo ... Edit: Sorted.
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    Fixed that
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
gdm85 6y ago
I had never heard about this, but from the nicely written manual it looks like a neat OS. Since the source code is available I could not resist porting "lc" (List files in categories and columns): https://github.com/gdm85/lc https://github.com/gdm85/lc If you have nostalgia of that command you can now enjoy it on your modern Linux!
- lewiscollard 6y ago
  It's a command with my initials too, so how could I not compile and install this :) Thanks for doing this!
tyingq 6y ago
An old magazine ad for Coherent. https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Coherent-v3.0-ad.jpg https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/1...
Max-q 6y ago
Coherent was the operating system running on the Commodore 900, that was cancelled when Commodore bought Amiga Inc.
jhallenworld 6y ago
We used Coherent- I remember it was much cheaper than SCO UNIX / Xenix (back in the days when you had to pay $500 for the C compiler). Here's an ad showing this: https://virtuallyfun.com/category/coherent/ https://virtuallyfun.com/category/coherent/ The install time claim is interesting- I'm sure this comes down whether it optimizes floppy drive reads (for example, read a track at a time).
jacquesm 6y ago
Coherent was produced by the Mark Williams company, founded by Robert Swartz, Aaron Swartz' father. If you ever want to see what good documentation looks like go read the manuals (linked elsewhere in this thread).
bluedino 6y ago
The page design of the book reminds me of the old WROX Press books
vaxman 6y ago
Instantly reminded me of Desqview, one of many systems murdered by Bill Gates’ dirty tricks while the government was asleep at the switch of an IBM 360.

81 points by ColinWright 6y ago

From the Mastodon comment[0] where I found this: "COHERENT was a UNIX variant for DOS compatible PCs and this is the 1409 page document that will teach you everything. "This document assumes you've never used a computer much less UNIX and walks you through installation, configuration, how logging in works, basic usage, using text editors, basic and advanced administration, network administrator and eventually topics including programming! "You walk in a baby and walk out a C programming UNIX wizard, all on your 286 with 2MB of ram." -- penny, @penny@cute.science [0] https://mathstodon.xyz/web/statuses/104720370803968311 https://mathstodon.xyz/web/statuses/104720370803968311

1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
Manuals: https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/coherent/ftp/manuals/ https://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/coherent/ftp/manuals/

homarp 6y ago

previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21200902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21200902 now open sourced at http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php

ColinWright 6y ago
Fabulous ... thank you.

simonblack 6y ago

Thank you Coherent. And thank you to all the guys/girls that used to work at the Mark Williams Company. Coherent opened my eyes to the world of UNIX. 30 years later, and I have never yet used Windows as my every-day desktop.

icedchai 6y ago

I used to run Coherent back when I was in high school. I ran it on a 386SX with 3 megs of RAM (yes, odd number.) I later installed SLS Linux on that same machine. The Coherent documentation was amazing. I still remember that huge book...

cowmix 6y ago

Coherent made a fatal choice at the wrong time. Mark Williams Company started to ramp up their marketing right before Linux really started to his. When they had to make a choice to add either XWindows or a TCP/IP stack to Coherent, they chose XWindows. Coherent could have been a great Internet OS at the dawn of the commercialization of the Internet but they blew it.

derekp7 6y ago
A buddy at work used to work for MWC, and always talks about what might have been. This, among other stories...
zerr 6y ago
Isn't Linux being free (including as in beer) one of the main reasons of Coherent fail?
- arexxbifs 6y ago
  In the mid-90s, downloading Linux wasn't feasible for most people and getting a manual with the install media was a plus because you couldn't just google for help the same way you can today. But I guess Coherent could have been competitive for no more than a few years, at best.
  - anthk 6y ago
    In the mid-90's you have Slackware 96.
    - xbar 6y ago
      And books like Linux Unleashed with Slackware CDs included.
  - icedchai 6y ago
    I remember going to a "Linux install fest" at a local ISP. We downloaded all of the SLS Linux floppies over a 56K leased line! This was late 1993 or early 1994, I think.

humbledude 6y ago

I can't overstate how great Coherent and this pale green book were. It was a complete UNIX experience and taught me valuable skills that I use to this day. The manual is probably the best organized and most comprehensive one that I've seen for ANY software to this day. I still don't know how Mark Williams Company pulled off this amazing feat with such limited resources. To anyone who was involved with its production - thank you and much respect.

vmilner 6y ago
Similar with me. I was loving using UNIX at work on Suns ~1991/2, but it wasn't until I borrowed a PC with Coherent for a few weeks that I really was able to explore it properly, both in the sense of being to work as root, and having this excellent book. I was sad when I had to give the PC back, until Linux hit the scene a little while later.

nrclark 6y ago

Advent of Computing did a great podcast about Coherent recently. For anybody who's interested, I'd recommend checking it out: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coherent-is-not-unix/id1459202600?i=1000474914279 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coherent-is-not-unix/i...

unixhero 6y ago

It is such a marvel of cosmic luck that Linus Torvalds could not afford to buy this for his computer.

pjmlp 6y ago
Even more luck that BSD was being sued, while Linus decided to use GPL.
- dhosek 6y ago
  I was flirting with setting up my own server with bsd386 in the 90s. The main thing stopping me was money: I had the offer of free rack space at my old college's network but my income was low enough relative to the cost of building a server (and a rackmount case) that I never pulled the trigger. My 20-something self would be envious of the amount of computing power I have within arm's reach right now.
vmilner 6y ago
Linus's Jan 1992 post on comp.os.coherent is interesting: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.coherent/c/3dSbdErXdUc/m/uoBUzk9NEEsJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.coherent/c/3dSbdErXdUc/m...

rbanffy 6y ago

I remember one of the reviews, where the reviewer complained he couldn't get uucp working between Coherent and a Unix box and he suggested it be called "cccp" (Coherent to Coherent Copy Program) instead. edit: s/could/couldn't/

ColinWright 6y ago
Typo ... Edit: Sorted.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  Fixed that
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

gdm85 6y ago

I had never heard about this, but from the nicely written manual it looks like a neat OS. Since the source code is available I could not resist porting "lc" (List files in categories and columns): https://github.com/gdm85/lc https://github.com/gdm85/lc If you have nostalgia of that command you can now enjoy it on your modern Linux!

lewiscollard 6y ago
It's a command with my initials too, so how could I not compile and install this :) Thanks for doing this!

tyingq 6y ago

An old magazine ad for Coherent. https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Coherent-v3.0-ad.jpg https://virtuallyfun.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/1...

Max-q 6y ago

Coherent was the operating system running on the Commodore 900, that was cancelled when Commodore bought Amiga Inc.

jhallenworld 6y ago

We used Coherent- I remember it was much cheaper than SCO UNIX / Xenix (back in the days when you had to pay $500 for the C compiler). Here's an ad showing this: https://virtuallyfun.com/category/coherent/ https://virtuallyfun.com/category/coherent/ The install time claim is interesting- I'm sure this comes down whether it optimizes floppy drive reads (for example, read a track at a time).

jacquesm 6y ago

Coherent was produced by the Mark Williams company, founded by Robert Swartz, Aaron Swartz' father. If you ever want to see what good documentation looks like go read the manuals (linked elsewhere in this thread).

bluedino 6y ago

The page design of the book reminds me of the old WROX Press books

vaxman 6y ago

Instantly reminded me of Desqview, one of many systems murdered by Bill Gates’ dirty tricks while the government was asleep at the switch of an IBM 360.