Worst Commerical Unix

[xeemzor]

I'm sure others have horror stories related to commercial unix operating systems, so now is your chance to vote on which commercial unix sucks the most? Please include any relevant experiences about why you hate it. Yes, I now OS X isn't in the poll, but that's due to the fact that it's marketed as a desktop operating system, rather than as workstation/server.

For me, the worst unix would have to be HP-UX do the fact that it just feels so backwards compared to linux. The package management system is terrible. If you wish to install binaries, it forces you to run around in a loop installing tons of depended rather than install it automatically. If you wish to compile software, a lot won't compile because of missing libraries. The devices all have weird names, like /dev/hil_0.1. The userland tools really suck, and there is no auto completion in the shell. Maybe it is because I'm using an older version of hp-ux instead of a newer one, but I really don't see how much it could have improved.

 

[halfadder]

My vote is for HP-UX as it seems to require the most work out of the box to get it up to my usability standards.

Ancient versions of IRIX were pretty nasty too.

The thing with unix is that if you don't like the environment, you can quickly change it. Sit me down in front of almost any unix and I'll download (or compile) a new version of BASH so I can have my favorite shell (with auto-completion, etc). I'll download/compile my favorite utilities, configure X to my liking, and before the day is over that machine will feel just as good as my favorite unix platform.

Because unix is so flexible, and because it usually takes less than one working day for me to secure, configure, and customize pretty much any unix, I don't have a huge preference anymore. They're all good. Even bad unix is better than no unix.