Mac "Workgroup Server" (or "network server") hardware & AIX

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: I have an AWGS 95. Basically a Quadra 950 with a special PDS card and DDS drive. It runs A/UX 3.0.1 ... I also ran A/UX 3.0.1 on my IIfx for a while but I got tired of it and reloaded the machine with System 7. Out of all the machines Apple made, only the IIfx and the AWGS 95 were in any way engineered with A/UX in mind ... IIRC, the I/O coprocessors in the IIfx only run in A/UX, and the PDS card in the WGS 95 is only supported in A/UX. A/UX is an interesting system. Compatibility with System 7 apps is pretty good, though not perfect. The UNIX environment is pretty stunted but that could have been fixed with further development. They did manage to combine the System 7 GUI with a basic UNIX command line. One favorite alternative reality of mine is to imagine Apple continuing to develop A/UX, improving the UNIX environment and applications compatibility, using the Copland UI instead of buying NeXT and turning NeXTstep into Mac OS X. But BeOS was better than either of them ;) The Workgroup Servers were 68k Macs that ran A/UX (or later just PPC Macs that ran Mac OS and AppleShare). In the case of the WGS 95, there was a hop-up board included, but it was still just a Quadra 950 at heart that can run Mac OS like any other Q950. The Network Servers were PPC machines that ran AIX and only AIX... and in that regard not really Macs, IMO. A/UX never ran on PPC. I saw a fair number of Workgroup Servers back in the good ole days, 68k and PPC, but I've never ever seen a Network Server. I remember the "Applefritter" site was hosted on an ANS 700 for a while and I thought I read somewhere that it ran on AIX 4.x. No such machine exists but it's interesting to think what may have come had CHRP succeeded and Apple did things a little differently. I miss the RISC wars... :O Best, Sean