[TUHS] Interesting post about Microsoft and UNIX

[Marc Rochkind]

I'm sure Compaq was thinking ahead. They would be very aware of Microsoft's
Windows plans. Buyers also think ahead, especially corporate buyers, who
are the real customers.

Marc

On Fri, Dec 6, 2024, 8:11 PM Henry Bent <henry.r.bent at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 6 Dec 2024 at 17:53, Yeechang Lee <ylee at columbia.edu> wrote:
>
>> John Levine says:
>> > That was oddly shortsighted of IBM.  Was it 16 bits is enough for
>> > anything you'd do on your desktop, or 32 bits is too close to
>> > competing with our big machines?
>>
>> Compaq got its Deskpro 386 out by late 1986. IBM didn't see the urgency
>> and released the PS/2 Model 80 in June 1987. Not just IBM; HP, for example,
>> in 1987 was still saying publicly that it was evaluating when and how to
>> release its own 386 system.
>>
>> Compaq's move panicked smaller competitors who didn't need to preserve
>> their dignity and knew what the computer meant, with many showing hastily
>> built prototypes at November 1986 Comdex.
>>
>> While Microsoft did help Compaq while designing Deskpro 386, and Gates
>> attended the computer's announcement, I don't think it affected its plans
>> for Xenix and OS/2. The announcement did establish Compaq as arguably the
>> standard setter in IBM's place by 1990, or more accurately proved that IBM
>> was no longer the standard setter. Had Dell been the first out with a 386
>> box that might have affected its plans for Dell Unix, but Compaq never had
>> its own operating system until the DEC acquisition.
>>
>
> I may be showing my ignorance here, but Compaq rushed to market a 386
> machine so it could run... what?  16 bit DOS?  Other 16 bit operating
> systems?  It's kind of astonishing to me that no one had a 32 bit operating
> system ready for the 386 PC market, especially given that Intel had
> released the chip to developers a year earlier.  SVR2 was readily available
> as a porting base but it appears that pretty much everyone dropped the ball
> on having a UNIX ready for a fairly powerful $10k machine with a clearly
> established market acceptance (from any vendor, not just Compaq or IBM).
>
> -Henry
>
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