Readers of this note probably know that GCG's Wisconsin Package is
supported by only a limited number of Operating Systems. None of these
to my knowledge runs on an inexpensive Pentium or Power-Mac. machine.
Reading the back of one of the 'Partition Magic' -like software boxes
today (boot level OS option), I came upon the word 'Solaris' as an
OS possibility.
I know that SUN apparently makes an OS which clearly will run
upon Pentium machines, called X86, but that system is
NOT Solaris.
I know from taking these newsgroups seriously that SunOS was originally
based upon BSD, but apparently 'Solaris' departed from this initiative
and moved to incorporate several DEC Fortran extensions, which GCG
relies upon. Solaris 2.3 and 2.4 are supportable GCG Operating Systems.
Has anybody tried running Solaris on a Pentium machine? Does it work?
[Short Glossary]
GCG= Genetics Computer Group
Sun= Sun Microsystems Inc.
DEC= Digital Equipment Corporation
Solaris= Unix operating system incorporating C shells, Korn Shells and
Bourne shells with old Berkeley Unix (with AT&T Bell Labs)
specifically designed? for Sun Microsystem computers.
OS or OSs= Operating Systems
BSD= Berkeley Software Design, a form of unix of which one is apparently
free and available for downloading all over the net, commonly called
Free BSD, and one is costly and available from Berkeley Software
Design Incorporated of Colorado (1-800-800-BSDI).
X86= A form of Unix sold by Sun Microsystems which apparently runs
on Pentium machines.
SunOS= An early form of the Sun Microsystems Operating System which
was based on the unix designed by authors at U. Cal. at Berkeley
and those at AT&T Bell Labs.
Feel free to feedback on my glossary as well (if you don't correct
me, I'll never understand unix).
Bert
