[TUHS] Interesting post about Microsoft and UNIX

[Jonathan Gray]

On Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 10:11:26PM -0500, Henry Bent 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).

The 1986 press release for the Deskpro 386 mentioned 386 Xenix
was planned for 1987.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-10-fi-13177-story.html

Intel and AT&T had ISC do a 386 port for SVR3.

"The 386/ix is based on Release 3.0, which was developed by Interactive
Systems Corp. Santa Monica, Calif., under contract to Intel and AT&T.
The code was tested through an extensive beta program managed by Intel
(with more than 60 80386 beta sites)."
Mini-Micro Systems, January 1988, p 45
https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_MiniMicroS_59292072/page/44/mode/2up
https://bitsavers.org/magazines/Mini-Micro_Systems/198801.pdf

AT&T sold rebadged Olivetti machines with SVR3 in 1987:
"AT&T 6386 WGS is today's only 80386-based system to take full advantage
of its 32-bit architecture"
https://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/6386_wgs/6386_WGS_Brochure.pdf

ISC work was also used by Microport:
"Microport Runtime System V/386 is based on a version of Unix for the
80386 carried out by Interactive Technologies for AT&T and Intel."
Microport to Ship Version of Unix for 386
InfoWorld, Volume 9, Issue 9, 2 Mar 1987, p 3
https://books.google.com/books?id=1TAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA3