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"Until Linux, UNIX didn't even run on PCs at all, only expensive proprietary hardware" Not true. There was Xenix, SCO, and Coherent as 3 examples off the top o

"Until Linux, UNIX didn't even run on PCs at all, only expensive proprietary hardware" Not true. There was Xenix, SCO, and Coherent as 3 examples off the top of my head.

mike_hearn 4y ago
You're right, I'd forgotten about Xenix. Never heard of Coherent. SCO I thought was big iron but I'll take your word for it that I'm wrong about that. There sure were a lot of UNIX vendors back then!
icedchai 4y ago
Yes! I ran Coherent 4.0 on a 386SX laptop when I was in high school (before moving to Linux.) Coherent had incredible documentation, something that is very rare today. I still remember that book with the shell on it, and learned a ton about systems administration and POSIX programming from it. Here it is: https://archive.org/details/CoherentMan https://archive.org/details/CoherentMan
pjmlp 4y ago
It did, but for their prices and hardware requirements I would rather use OS/2 instead.
- icedchai 4y ago
  Coherent was relatively cheap if you wanted a PC unix clone. $100 in 1992: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/coherent_unixalike_for_intel_at_100_from_mark_williams https://techmonitor.ai/technology/coherent_unixalike_for_int...
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    That is the price for the software + the hardware to actually run it at an acceptable speed. And all things being equal you could still get OS/2 as low as $49, > The suggested introductory price of OS/2 2.0 is $139. However, the cost falls to $99 for users upgrading from DOS, which includes just about anyone, and to $49 for users who are willing to turn in their Microsoft version of Windows. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/21/science/personal-computers-high-hopes-for-the-new-os-2.html https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/21/science/personal-computer...
    - icedchai 4y ago
      True, OS/2 was much cheaper. Coherent was relatively cheap for a Unix clone, which is basically what I was getting at. SCO Xenix / Unix was in the $500+ range. A C compiler wasn't even included, if I recall.

"Until Linux, UNIX didn't even run on PCs at all, only expensive proprietary hardware" Not true. There was Xenix, SCO, and Coherent as 3 examples off the top of my head.

mike_hearn 4y ago

You're right, I'd forgotten about Xenix. Never heard of Coherent. SCO I thought was big iron but I'll take your word for it that I'm wrong about that. There sure were a lot of UNIX vendors back then!

icedchai 4y ago

Yes! I ran Coherent 4.0 on a 386SX laptop when I was in high school (before moving to Linux.) Coherent had incredible documentation, something that is very rare today. I still remember that book with the shell on it, and learned a ton about systems administration and POSIX programming from it. Here it is: https://archive.org/details/CoherentMan https://archive.org/details/CoherentMan

pjmlp 4y ago

It did, but for their prices and hardware requirements I would rather use OS/2 instead.

icedchai 4y ago
Coherent was relatively cheap if you wanted a PC unix clone. $100 in 1992: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/coherent_unixalike_for_intel_at_100_from_mark_williams https://techmonitor.ai/technology/coherent_unixalike_for_int...
- pjmlp 4y ago
  That is the price for the software + the hardware to actually run it at an acceptable speed. And all things being equal you could still get OS/2 as low as $49, > The suggested introductory price of OS/2 2.0 is $139. However, the cost falls to $99 for users upgrading from DOS, which includes just about anyone, and to $49 for users who are willing to turn in their Microsoft version of Windows. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/21/science/personal-computers-high-hopes-for-the-new-os-2.html https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/21/science/personal-computer...
  - icedchai 4y ago
    True, OS/2 was much cheaper. Coherent was relatively cheap for a Unix clone, which is basically what I was getting at. SCO Xenix / Unix was in the $500+ range. A C compiler wasn't even included, if I recall.