How dead is it?
16 messages in this thread
I have Amiga Unix version 2.1, with a 2-user license. I would like to upgrade
to
an unlimited license.
I have been told by the Commodore dealership in NYS that I have to talk to
Commodore about this, even though I bought the machine there and received
the upgrade to 2.1 there.
However, when attempting to talk to Commodore, first of all, noone answers
the phone for over a half hour. Then I had someone tell me that I would get
a call back the next day – which of course never happened.
Does anyone here know if it is possible to upgrade still, or who to contact
about this – like a phone number that is answered by Commodore.
I am hoping at least the SYSOP may know something, I hope I am not
mistaken in this notion.
-Jay Pedersen
The Reason
You people are slow to pick up. The reason Commodore Gave up on UNIX is
nobody and I mean NoBODY bought it execpt a handful of college kids. If
you think the market will support such a beast at this time guess again.
Even MicroSoft will be in trouble soon if things don't change.
We all had high hopes in 1989-1991 for UNIX and the like. This is not the
only dream you will see fail…….
Tim:
Nobody bought it? Did anyone really have a chance? Did Commodore do
anything to make their Unix implementation special? The answer to both of
these questions is a big NO. If Commodore had made something about their
Unix machine different, offered something that wasn't currently out there
rather than making 'just another SVR4 machine' they might have sold more.
Also, if they had tried selling it for a while, really tried, they might
have sold more machines. If their Unix ran concurrently with AmigaDOS, and
there was a good way to communicate between them (like there was supposed
to be with the Bridgeboards) then they might have had something to
market.
AmigaUnix was just another screwup in a long list of screwups that
Commodore has made. It's amazing how a company with such a good R&D
department can have such a horrible marketing dept.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
re: "'just another SVR4 machine'"
You DO mean the FIRST SVR4 machine, don't you??
Vic:
Was it the first PC that ran SVR4? I don't know. It really doesn't matter
either, as it officially doesn't run it anymore 🙁
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Yeh, Mike I think it was the first. Just goes to show how great C='s
marketing was to capitalize on that fact. Boy oh boy, I almost bought one
too. I demoed one and found the performance to be slow. I think it was
because I was using X on a 5meg machine and it was swapping to disk. Less
than 2 years later I know I made the right decision (for the wrong
reasons?).
Goin' AP
…..Mark Sterling
Its interesting that in spite of the "screwup" that Commodore made, there
is a little company in England called "Advent". They make one of the most
powerful desktop publishing packages available for the IBM PC. I thought
it was very interesting that they also made a version for the Amiga
3000/UX. Can you believe it!
You must mean "college kids with a lot of discretionary income and a previous
admiration for the Amiga, and no computers they can use for free at their
college's computer science department." That *would* be only a handful of
kids. I would say CBM's Unix died because of lack of marketing: they didn't
know who to sell it to, and they didn't try. Unix workstation buyers are not
known for buying under-powered boxes. Amiga Unix didn't make any sense at a
lot of levels.
Speaking of UNIX, do you (or anybody) know what happened to Matt Dillon's
promised port of BSD4.4? I think it was mentioned a year or so ago as "coming
soon."
I haven't heard of it since you did. Maybe someone who reads the Internet
would know. Or I bet Toebes knows.
Rob:
Matt has stopped work on it because he had too many other projects to do
that were putting money in his pocket (and food on his table?). I think
part of his decision was in part because of the lawsuit USL brought
against BSDI as well.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
>> Matt has stopped working on it (BSD4.4).
Sorry to hear it. I was hoping to run some of that nifty Berkeley freeware,
especially Michael Stonebreaker's database.
I have to agree that it is a shame that Amiga Unix is dead.
Commodore did come out with the "software-only" for Unix for
under $1000.00, try to get that from SCO. The same package
(Development, TCP/IP, X-Windows) is around $5000.00 from SCO
just for the software. The only thing they had that Amiga Unix
did not have is the Motif GUI for X-Windows (instead of Open Look).
So had Commodore pushed the price of the software, and the features,
you would think it may have been an attractive package.
-Jay Pedersen
Jay:
I didn't know that SCO was based on Motif! Well, knowing that now I can
say that I prefer Open Look better than Motif!
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
He stopped because of several reasons:
. 1) The lawsuit (which looks like it is going to pass into history)
. 2) Dice and other interesting things
. 3) Projects where he lives/works that need to be done.
I bought an Amiga 3000/UX and I am no college kid. As a computer
professional I need to keep unix-aware. It looks good on my resume. Now
I am working somewhere where all they have are pc's. So I have unix at
home which I can use anytime, play with anytime and get a feel for the way
it works. It also has one of the best editors ever made for any computer
anywhere called emacs. It is not a partial implementation like the memacs
on Commodore's workbench extras disk, but the full GNU emacs implemetation
with a full lisp interpreter built in, thats fully programmable and
extendable. Of course I do most of my work in the Amiga side but when I
get the inspiration, I like to turn on the unix and learn something new
and play and see what happens.