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A review of Coherent in the June 1985 issue of Unix World. They checked out an early version of the affordable Unix Version 7 clone, initially for PC XTs and then 286+ machines. Back then Coherent cost $500, missed some tools, supported only 2 terminals, and had issues.
The price later dropped to $99.95. The product greatly improved, came with more software, and became a great value.
https://archive.org/details/Unix_World_Vol02_05.pdf/page/n67/mode/2up
I ran the cheap 286 Coherent for a couple of years, it was great. (Then I scored a 3B2.)
@davefischer Did it run well on the 286? How much RAM did you have?
I think one meg? Ran great. Easily crashed while programming, not having a proper MMU. (It used segmented memory to isolate processes, but that immediately failed if your program executed random data.)
@davefischer On a 386 I don't remember a single crash.
@amoroso
Coherent was amazing, back in the day.
@musevg Agreed, I used it in the early 1990s and it opened my eyes to Unix.
@dougmerritt In the pre Linux era Coherent was the only affordable Unix for hobbyists. But it was far from a toy as the quality of the manual hints.
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