Future direction of A/UX?

[John Sovereign]

In article <7304 at hoptoad.uucp> gnu at hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
>km at mathcs.emory.edu (Ken Mandelberg) wrote:
>>                               Actually, beyond some vague
>> comments on increased MacOS compatibility, I have heard nothing
>> about the feature content of future versions of A/UX. Certainly
>> nothing about the Unix only features.
>
>That's because Apple is unlikely to provide any.

I don't agree.  Look at the "Unix" features Apple has already added
to A/UX since 1.0.

	NFS 3.2
	SLIP 
	More BSD'isms (e.g., RCS)
	X Windows
	POSIX
	
Combined with the original release, A/UX is already, in many respects,
"feature-competitive" with SVR4, e.g., a "merged" UNIX, easier kernel
reconfiguration, STREAMS, ....

>The reason to sell A/UX at all is that GSA won't let US Government
>departments buy any computers that can't be upgraded to run Unix.

Of the new features listed above, only POSIX can be considered driven
by the Government.

>able to switch to more cost-effective hardware.  There is no point in
>doing any more than this, since the number of units they want to sell
>would never pay back the investment.  And it accounts for why Apple is
>not marketing A/UX -- they don't WANT to sell copies.  Even the

Again, I don't agree with this analysis of Apple's strategy.  Why is
Mac OS compatibility a priority for A/UX?  Because the users want it.
A big reason UNIX is only 5% of the installed computer base is the
lack of application software.  Users don't care what operating system runs
their machine for them!  With Mac OS compatibility, A/UX instantly
claims a huge application software base (I want my Word 4.0!).

At the same time, as I suggest above, Apple IS enhancing the UNIX of A/UX.

John Sovereign
uunet!unisoft!john
UniSoft Corporation

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