thoughts on UNIX and older systems

> Of course, it's a good feeling to even have the option. > Because 10 - 12 years ago, what were your UNIX options, if > you weren't the government or a university? > > 1) You could buy expensive hardware that ran a UNIX variant. > 2) You bought a workstation from Sun or Apollo - still not cheap. > 3) If you were lucky, you got one of the few Cromemcos or > Perkin-Elmer desktops, that ran UNIX. But they weren't > much less expensive than the Sun, Apollo, etc workstations. > (Fortune's desktops were in the workstation price range.) > 4) If you were really lucky, you found a good deal on a used > PDP from someone with a UNIX license who forgot to wipe the > disks or tapes - but then you were illegal. > 5) You bought Minix. Minix was cheap, and you got source, but > it was really meant to be a teaching tool. It was well done, > but extremely limited. (Nevertheless, Tanenbaum's _Operating > Systems Design and Implementation_ is still an excellent book.) > 6) If you were *really* lucky, you got a good deal on a working > workstation.