jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) (05/09/90)
Some people have apparently gotten the misleading impression that I intend, at some point, on distributing a 4.3 port for the pc532. I'm sorry if I gave that impression, but this is simply not the case. My earlier "call for a consortium" among UNIX developers was aimed strictly at banding together that small group of folk (less than 5% of the pc532 owners, I'd say) who are bent on going their own way, for whatever reason. The majority of you seem to be happy enough to go along with Dave in his efforts to get SYSV, which I applaud and hope succeed, and that is fine. A mainstream UNIX for the pc532 will also further legitimize the machine and encourage further hardware development, which we need. I, however, will never run SYSV on my pc532 and cannot benefit (at least not directly) from these efforts. I don't want to start a religious war here, but I really cannot conceive of running SYSV while I have a shred of choice in the matter. I, quite simply, loath it to the core. Why? Well, maybe it's because I cannot count the number of hours of my life I have wasted fighting to port various BSD applications to SYSV or going through the agonizing process of trying to get useful work done in a single-terminal environment without job control. I'm sorry, but I will not willingly subject myself to further aggravation along these lines. That would be masochistic. I know that these are strong opinions, and I'll probably get flamed for them (which is fine, but please, not on the list), but I guess I've just had it up-to-here with what seems to be the pervasive "we've got SYSV running, what more do you want" attitude that the major hardware vendors have taken (for what I am sure are very good, sound, business reasons, but I can hate them just the same). Sorry, I guess I didn't mean to froth at the mouth quite so much, but my spleen has needed venting for a long time.. :-) In any case, the license we have here is a research / commercial license which allows us to port to new hardware, and I am sort of trying to work under this (admittedly shakey) umbrella. If worse comes to worse, I will try and get it more fully declared as an official project. This still does not allow me to ever redistribute so much as one byte of binary code, and I do not intend (nor did I ever intend) to do so. I am not trying to supplant Dave's efforts by any means, I would simply like to get in touch with that small pc532 faction that also has access to source and can perhaps share diffs/helpful hints in relation to a pc532 port. I hope that this clears everything up. (God, I hate this legal $@#%$#@!!). Jordan
ian@sibyl.eleceng.ua.oz.au (05/09/90)
Jordan K. Hubbard writes: > My earlier "call for a consortium" among UNIX developers was aimed > strictly at banding together that small group of folk (less than 5% of the > pc532 owners, I'd say) who are bent on going their own way, for whatever > reason. The majority of you seem to be happy enough to go along with > Dave in his efforts to get SYSV, which I applaud and hope succeed, and that > is fine. Well, what I *really* would like is mach. Dave, is this true about getting SYSV? Last I heard you asked who was interested in what, then posted saying "No promises, but I may be able to get Unix". Not an exact quote, but I am pretty sure that which sort of unix was left unspecified. In any case what is the progress? Ian Dall
dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) (05/10/90)
[In the message entitled "To clarify further unclarified issues.." on May 10, 2:47, ian@sibyl.eleceng.ua.oz.au writes:] > > Dave, is this true about getting SYSV? Last I heard you asked who was > interested in what, then posted saying "No promises, but I may be able to > get Unix". Not an exact quote, but I am pretty sure that which sort of > unix was left unspecified. In any case what is the progress? > The exact quote was <egrep, mush, shuffle, etc> > Message-Id: <m0gc9Nn-0000CDC@daver.uu.net> > From: dlr@daver.UU.NET (Dave Rand) > Date: Thu, 14 Dec 89 20:17:25 PST > Subject: Santa is here. > > [ deleted] > > In addition ( ** no promises ** ), we are working on a UNIX solution. > I will, as always, let you know what this will be. This will not impact > any of the other efforts for software. Here we are, 5 months later. I am still trying to get the details finalized. Three weeks ago, I thought I was one day from signing the papers. Then some problems came up. Sigh. *nothing* is ever as simple as you think it is. I tend not to tell you <the group> about things until they are done, or at least at a point such that I can commit times and dates. It prevents frustration on your behalf, and on mine. So, the official statement: We are working on more than one UNIX solution. No promises. I will, as always, let you know what these will be. They will not impact any of the other efforts in progress. BTW - all boards from this run have been shipped to those that have ordered them. We have (I think) 1 board left over at this point. We now have over 100 PCB's out! I never thought that there would be so much interest! Thanks to all of you, and we look forward to some interesting projects in the next few months... -- Dave Rand {pyramid|hoptoad|sun|vsi1}!daver!dlr Internet: dlr@daver.bungi.com