a/ux look-alikes etc (long)

[Phil Ronzone]

In article <37927 at pyramid.pyramid.com> wendyt at pyrps5.UUCP (Wendy Thrash) writes:
>In article <16505 at apple.Apple.COM> phil at apple.com.UUCP (Phil Ronzone) writes:
>Am I the only one who thinks of Miss Anne Elk while reading this?  Certainly
>the presence of these features in A/UX was a decision made by Apple, and in
>that sense they're responsible.  There seems, though, to be an implication
>that without Apple those things would never have found their way into UniPlus+.
>I'm inclined to believe that many of them were destined for inclusion anyway.
>Not all the things Phil mentioned are A/UX exclusives.

No - many of the things that were mentioned would NOT have happened without
Apple. Some of them for money - the money UniSoft earned on the Apple contract
should allow UniSoft to develop software that otherwise it could not.
Remember, I KNOW what the UniSoft problems were - I came from UniSoft to join
Apple. As a member of the management committee and as the UniSoft UNIX
Product Manager I knew the problems, weaknesses, costs of the UNIX license,
what the "gotcha clauses" in the contract were and so on.

Case in point -- true job control. Can you imagine a decent workstation
without true Berkeley style job control?? The technical staff at UniSoft
resisted this requirement. It was, to be honest, delicately shoved down
their throats. And it still took three tries. To be sure, a poll of the
UniSoft programmers at the time would most likely have had them all voting
unanimously to do job control AS LONG AS THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO DO IT -- heck,
that was true for the three years that I was there.

>BTW, UniSoft has changed a great deal over just the last eight months; one
>should exercise some caution in making observations about how the company IS
>based on how it WAS.

Hmm - I talked with 3 current UniSoft managers in July -- from that
conversation I concluded that despite a close to 100% turnover in the last
3 years at UniSoft, the more things changed, the more the stayed the same.
Of course, I'm not there -- I only know that 3 current managers at UniSoft
voice the same complaints as when I was there.

>>UniSoft was a group of contractors to us, we paid them very well, gave each
>>UniSoft programmer who worked on the contract a Mac II, and thanked them.
>Would that it were so.  Apple was quite generous with Mac IIs, but not
>everyone who worked on the contract ended up with one.

Let me be more precise. WE (Apple) wanted to give each programmer on the
project who worked on it either full-time or made a major contribution
a Mac II. Not just for a thank you, but to have them using the product.
I.e., this will be YOUR UNIX system so do your best style motivation.
HOWEVER - UniSoft management did NOT want Apple giving the systems to the
programmers directly -- they wanted the control and did not want their
management/Santa Clause privileges usurped. So, since UniSoft wanted
control, we (Apple) decided on 18 systems to give to UniSoft to give to
their programmers. From the grumblings I've seen, UniSoft has not been
in "optimal mode" on this. If we, Apple, had had our way, we would have
been giving out systems almost a year ago. Direct to the programmers.

Because at UniSoft, as well as at Apple and elsewhere, there was some
mighty hard work. I personally worked from Christmas 86 through March
87 seven days a week, 16 hours a day, nonstop. Yet people such as Paul
Campbell at UniSoft worked even harder at times.

The point is -- it took Apple desire to do it right, the drive to MAKE it
happen, the intolerance of anyone's "organizational barriers" that tried
to stop A/UX from being done right, and Apple money, to do A/UX. It took
Apple to make it happen. And we've really just started.

Isn't looking at this moderately soiled underware fun for the net? :-)
+------------------------+-----------------------+----------------------------+
| Philip K. Ronzone      | A/UX System Architect | APPLELINK: RONZONE1        |
| Apple Computer         +-----------------------+----------------------------+
| Mail Stop 27AJ         | "Forgive him Caesar, for he is a barbarian, and    |
| 10500 N. DeAnza Blvd.  |  thinks the features of his release are the ways   |
| Cupertino CA 95014     |  of nature."                                       |
+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------+
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