Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 12:58:22 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: Shimon@i-Connect.Net (Simon Shapiro) Cc: stesin@gu.net, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SVR4.2MP source code has become available recently? Message-ID: <199707261958.MAA02939@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <XFMail.970726012207.Shimon@i-Connect.Net> from "Simon Shapiro" at Jul 26, 97 01:22:07 am
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[ ... UnixWare ... ] > It has a descent SMP implementation (Better than Solaris). > The SCSI layer may be interesting. > Used to have a nice desktop for X11 Ugh. The SMP implementation *is* "better"... quoted because it is more x86 dependent tha the Solaris stuff. Personally, I'd use the Solaris model, if only for hardware compatability, if I had the choice to make, and if doing so would not infringe trade secrets and copyrights, and risk contamination. Remember that both these source bases are *licensed*, not freely usable. The UnixWare SCSI layer probably excludes the HIM-derived code for the Adaptec controllers, which is about the only thing that I found interesting about the code. Honestly, Julian's code was better than UnixWare's at the time. The X11 desktop was only nice in that it was an OpenLook with hacks to let it have a Motif "look and feel", and let you switch between them. Like all compromise soloutions, it was vastly disliked. The major reason the desktop was shipped was "Not Invented Here" for CDE and Visix Looking Glass. This type of crap is why UnixWare never succeeded in the desktop market. Most of the driving forces behind the UnixWare developement, which mainly occurred at Univel, a partnership between AT&T and Novell, before Novell bought USL and owned it all themselves, were people like Gary Tomlinson and Brian Sparks. If that second name is familiar, it should be: Brian Sparks was the person behind the original NetWare for UNIX product, and through it, the genesis of the Platform Independent NetWare code (a derivitive of his idea, not something he personally did; it was, IMO, inferior to the NetWare for UNIX code in many ways, and ended up being pulled into the mainline NetWare -- an unfortunate occurance). Brian Sparks is also the guy behind the Novell project to build a desktop OS based on Linux (internally, they were called "Linivel"), and eventually went on to be the principle founder of Caldera when the internal project was killed for fear of it damaging UnixWare sales (UnixWare has a rather large footprint). The shitty UnixWare desktop that could not be replaced because it was USL technology was IMO, one of the straws that broke the camels back; I would not recommend getting the code... let it die in peace. Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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