timk@NCSA.UIUC.EDU (Tim Krauskopf) (08/05/88)
The misinformation is getting a little thick. AUX for Apple's Macintosh II is a port of System V with BSD networking, (I don't know how many 4.3 enhancements are in 1.0, 1.1 should be full 4.3BSD TCP/IP) other BSD enhancements and full NFS support. It works. Right now it is plain vanilla, X is coming, black and white only for now, Mac ToolBox graphics are available. The auto-config has everyone else's UNIX beat. Running AUX doesn't prevent you from running MacOS, just takes up a whole 80MB drive. AUX does NOT cost more than $1000. If you buy two Mac II systems with identical hardware, one with AUX and the other with MacOS (the original Macintosh operating system), then you will find the cost of AUX is anywhere from $200 to $500 depending on the hardware you actually buy. Plus manuals, 6-foot set, isn't real cheap, order separately. If you call the extra expense of the hard disk a part of the UNIX cost, then you haven't been running many Suns. This is a full product line, dealers and everything, contact your nearest AUX-certified Apple dealer or a sales office. Below this line, I am referring to MacOS, NOT AUX. For you PC users, think of this as DOS vs. XENIX, one has the applications, the other is UNIX. ------------------------ There is no commercial NFS for the Mac. Cayman Systems (Cambridge, MA, (617)494-1999) is releasing "real soon now" a box which converts NFS to AFP, the Apple Filing Protocol standard for shared disks under MacOS. NFS for MacOS in software is doable, primarily for Ethernet-equipped Macs, no announcements that I know of. TCP/IP for MacOS has been announced as "in development" at Apple in Cupertino. Target for release is before end of 1988. Demos scheduled for the TCP/IP Interoperability Conference in September. There are no commercial releases of TCP/IP or TCP/IP applications for MacOS shipping that I know of at the time I am writing this. Before the end of the year, expect 4 or more vendors to ship. University products are available from Cornell, Brown, Illinois (NCSA), Michigan, and Stanford, but some are restricted use. I am biased, Anonymous FTP to 128.174.20.50 for release package and source to NCSA Telnet for the Macintosh. What can you lose, it's public domain? I tried to stick to facts, but if there are any opinions above, they are my own. Tim Krauskopf timk@ncsa.uiuc.edu (ARPA) National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign