VPI and A/UX

[Mat Davis]

In article <33162 at cup.portal.com> thad at cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) writes:
>And I'm not going to detail my present disappointment that A/UX is still
>SVR2/BSD4.2 based and doesn't (appear to) support the ABI (Application
>Binary Interface) featured in the latest SVR4; this fact will hurt Apple,
>as some recent news releases detail displacement of Mac-based A/UX boxes
>by SVR4-conforming UNIX boxes for undergrad use at places such as VPI
>(Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)) (see
>the Aug. 20, 1990, UNIX TODAY).

Just a minor correction: VPI's decision to "displace" A/UX machines was 
motivated mostly by price and had little or nothing to do with the features
of A/UX.  Every freshman entering the Computer Science program here is
*required* to purchase a Unix machine, and so getting the absolute lowest
possible price is a high priority.  If you read the above-mentioned article
carefully, you'll notice that "very specific requirements" are mentioned at
least twice, and that the other machine was "head and shoulders above the other
machines examined".  The machines mentioned in that statement did not include
Macs.

This is not in any way an official statement from Virginia Tech or the CS
Department; it's just what I happen to know about the PC selection process.

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                      Mat Davis (davism at vtopus.cs.vt.edu)
                 Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech
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