On 6 Mar, 19:27, darko <darko.krs...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 6, 1:04 am, "Martin Rubenstein" <ma...@sbohp.com> wrote:
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> > I have a medical practice with all of our billing, appointments, etc.
> > running on a proprietary software called Script Systems by Mysis. *The
> > server is a 4 year old IBM eServer with OS 5.07 as OS.. *I am concerned
> > about the need to replace the server before a hardware failure creates a
> > crisis, as I figure most hardware is good for about 5 years and we are near
> > that. *Mysis would prefer (naturally) that I migrate to a different software
> > they offer that is GUI instead of character based, although they still
> > support our product. *The OS on our server is OS 5.07. *How realistic is it
> > that I stick to our prior method of buying an Intel based server and load OS
> > 5.07 and our data myself, and have Mysis still do software support for their
> > product (but not hardware or OS) given Sco's financial problems. *Our
> > vender's solution is considerably more expensive, but has the advantaage
> > that they will support the new hardware and software. *All thoughts
> > appreciated.
>
> > Marty Rubenstein, MD
>
> At least one major server vendor, HP, still sells new servers that can
> run SCO OpenServer 5.0.7, and are certified for that OS. I am not sure
> about other vendors, since all Intel/AMD based servers I've dealt with
> recently were HP. For example, task of installing 5.0.7 on ProLiant
> DL380 G5 is doable, from my recent personal experience. I had to use
> external USB optical drive and floppy (broader described in another
> thread in this news group).
>
> The other option is to use virtualization like VMWare Server or
> Workstation on some Linux or Windows. That is also doable. You should
> just check if it is supported by your vendor(s). I am not sure if
> OpenServer is supported on VMWare officially.
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> Darko Krstic- Hide quoted text -
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> - Show quoted text -

Just because a server is "compatible" doesn't mean you can get it to
work. I've been doing hardware evaluations and integrations with
various OS's since BSD 4.1, and I've got to say that SCO configuration
harkens back to the bad old '80's of having to know the answer to
everything in advance. including details of SCSI configuration and
driver installations that any modern OS either auto-detects or has
decent probe tools to detect. The result is that adding peripherals,
such as tape drives, external USB drives, graphics tablets, or
slightly unusual monitors is awkward if not impossible. And it's only
going to get worse.

Virtualizing lets you sidestep these problems and leave them with a
current operating system capable of handling contemporary hardware,
and allows trivial transfer of your entire virtualized operating
system to an arbitrary virtualization server. It also installs in a
fraction of the time, because the underlying OS and hardware do the
bad block management for you and that *AMAZINGLY* slow OpenServer disk
configuration tools stays the heck out of your way.