30 Mar
2014
30 Mar
'14
5:23 a.m.
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run X86 code on sun
systems.
Internally and elsewhere I heard is was called "What a Bunch of Idiots"
Anyway some idiot has a cd he thinks is worth $599 on epay right now.
I don't know that you could activate it w/o someone at Sun getting you a
key, but even so it is a lot over the top.
Found in my sweep for interesting "emulators".
there is also a cd for "SoftWindows" for only $399.
My original search w/o tuning used to sweep up some religious cult who
used the term, as well as a huge number of folks who used the term to
refer to something sold to defeat encryption on Satellite boxes.
That business all died when the 8' dishes out on the farm gave way to
Dish and the like with real encryption.
Jim
30 Mar
30 Mar
6:40 a.m.
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run
X86 code on sun systems.
Was it an emulator or libraries you could like code against? I remember CDs with this
included with full Solaris 2.5.1 media kits.
Found in my sweep for interesting
"emulators".
there is also a cd for "SoftWindows" for only $399.
Was this x86 only? I remember this as a commercial alternative to WINE.
8:35 a.m.
On Mar 30, 2014 9:13 AM, "Jonathan Katz" <jon at jonworld.com> wrote:
I know nothing about wabi. I remember using a SunPCI card on a sparc
workstation, which had a mobile x86 processor on it -- pentium m, perhaps?
The card itself had the word 'chimera' on it, which I liked. It worked
pretty well.
> This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run X86 code on sun
systems.
Was it an emulator or libraries you could like code against? I remember
CDs with
this included with full Solaris 2.5.1 media kits.
Found in my sweep for interesting
"emulators".
there is also a cd for "SoftWindows" for only $399.
Was this x86 only? I remember this as a commercial alternative to WINE.
31 Mar
31 Mar
10:05 a.m.
This is going back a while, so i might not be 100% correct. WABI was the Windows
Application Binary Interface. It implemented all the required DLL's so that a Win
application didn't know it was not running on a genuine windows platform. This was
when Windows was still simple enough. I don't think WABI ever made it to Win95. It was
an emulator/middleware type package. Think SIMH, Classic99 (TI) etc. The guy asking $500+
on EBay is NUTS! Actually if anyone paid that for WABI THEY are NUTS!!!
If you really want/need this track down a complete version of Sol2.3 since WABI was
bundeled in there for free...
For the announcement see:
http://www.cbronline.com/news/sunsoft_offers_solaris_23_with_free_copy_of_w…
The SunPCI cards are a tottaly different beast. They are usually refered to as Sun Penguin
cards. It's basically a complete x86 computer w/CPU, ram, and video designed on a card
that sits inside your PCI based SPARC. I think they were targeted mostly at developers,
who wanted an x86 environment but didn't want an *actual* Windows box on their desk..
8-) Most of these boards are fully supported or can be made to work on all versions of
Solaris up to 10.x
--
alex
----- Original Message -----
From: "A. P. Garcia" <a.phillip.garcia at
gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2014 8:35:28 AM
Subject: Re: WABI for sun
On Mar 30, 2014 9:13 AM, "Jonathan Katz" <jon at jonworld.com> wrote:
I know nothing about wabi. I remember using a SunPCI card on a sparc
workstation, which had a mobile x86 processor on it -- pentium m, perhaps?
The card itself had the word 'chimera' on it, which I liked. It worked
pretty well.
> This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run X86 code on sun
systems.
Was it an emulator or libraries you could like code against? I remember
CDs with
this included with full Solaris 2.5.1 media kits.
Found in my sweep for interesting
"emulators".
there is also a cd for "SoftWindows" for only $399.
Was this x86 only? I remember this as a commercial alternative to WINE.
2:30 a.m.
I (personally) think that the Wikipedia page sums it up quite nicely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi_%28software%29
Jerry
On 03/30/14 07:23 AM, jim s wrote:
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run
X86 code on sun systems.
Internally and elsewhere I heard is was called "What a Bunch of Idiots"
Anyway some idiot has a cd he thinks is worth $599 on epay right now.
I don't know that you could activate it w/o someone at Sun getting you a key,
but even so it is a lot over the top.
Found in my sweep for interesting "emulators".
there is also a cd for "SoftWindows" for only $399.
My original search w/o tuning used to sweep up some religious cult who used the
term, as well as a huge number of folks who used the term to refer to something
sold to defeat encryption on Satellite boxes.
That business all died when the 8' dishes out on the farm gave way to Dish and
the like with real encryption.
Jim
8:51 a.m.
On 30 March 2014 13:23, jim s <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run
X86 code on sun
systems.
Internally and elsewhere I heard is was called "What a Bunch of Idiots"
Anyway some idiot has a cd he thinks is worth $599 on epay right now.
You don't specify which eBay site or an item number or anything and I
can't find anything on eBay with "sun wabi".
I have a copy of the later WABI product from Caldera. It was a good
idea in theory - basically it was a predecessor to WINE and WINE works
pretty well now. I used WABI on Caldera OpenLinux and it worked quite
well for MS Office and a couple of other things.
The big snag with WABI was that it needed a legal copy of Windows 3.1
to work, so you needed the licenses anyway.
It was a hopelessly na?ve idea of Sun's to forcibly open-source the
Windows API, but hey, they nearly got their and they showed that the
idea had merit. At the time, though, Locus DOS/Merge worked better.
--
Liam Proven * Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk * GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com * Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 * Cell: +44 7939-087884
9:45 a.m.
On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 8:23 AM, jim s <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to run
X86 code on sun
systems.
I used it once - when I was driving a SPARC5 all day and I wanted to
test the COSMAC Elf simulator in the late 1990s.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r/computer_simulators.htm
(note "WABI" in the compatibility list)
Internally and elsewhere I heard is was called
"What a Bunch of Idiots"
Never heard that but it fits.
-ethan
2:40 p.m.
New subject: WABI for sun (and other listings of 1990's Sun s/w updated)
On 3/31/2014 9:45 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 8:23 AM, jim s <jws at
jwsss.com> wrote:
<bottom posted so only Liam will see it. :-)>
The auctions had completed, and it took a bit to find them again.
WABI-2-0-BETA-FOR-SOLARIS-2-PC-X86-X-86-SUNSOFT-RARE-CD-ROM-COLLECTIBLE-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462769185
WABI-2-0-FOR-SOLARIS-x86-PC-X-86-CPU-WINDOWS-EMULATOR-RARE-CD-ROM-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462769189
Sunsoft-Solaris-2-4-X86-Pc-Version-X-86-Cpus-Floppy-Boot-Rare-Box-Set-With-Books-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462769191
SUN-SPARC-OR-SUN-SOLARIS-SOFTWINDOWS-EMULATOR-COLLECTIBLE-CD-ROM-RARE-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462768677
SUN-JAVA-JUMPSTART-EDITION-DEVELOPER-ESSENTIALS-COLLECTIBLE-CD-ROM-RARE-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462768682
I think some people would like Borland Jbuilder, but not for $499
JBUILDER-ENTERPRISE-BORLAND-JAVA-INTERBASE-WINDOWS-CDROM-LINUX-SOLARIS-RARE-KEY-
http://www.ebay.com/itm/251462768681
The seller has not relisted the Sun Software, and it does not appear to
have sold.
thanks
Jim
This was a very early and horribly priced bit to
run X86 code on sun
systems.
I used it once - when I was driving a SPARC5 all day and I wanted to
test the COSMAC Elf simulator in the late 1990s.
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r/computer_simulators.htm
(note "WABI" in the compatibility list)
Internally and elsewhere I heard is was called
"What a Bunch of Idiots"
Never heard that but it fits.
-ethan
5:47 p.m.
New subject: WABI for sun (and other listings of 1990's Sun s/w updated)
On 31 March 2014 22:40, jim s <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
<bottom posted so only Liam will see it. :-)>
I'm not the only one, am I?!
Thanks! I see it's a US-only listing which is why I couldn't find it.
I am tempted to try to auction my copy of the Caldera version now, but
I doubt it's really worth anything...
--
Liam Proven * Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk * GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com * Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 * Cell: +44 7939-087884
7:16 p.m.
New subject: WABI for sun (and other listings of 1990's Sun s/w updated)
On 3/31/2014 5:47 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
On 31 March 2014 22:40, jim s <jws at jwsss.com>
wrote:
The auctions were all probably over. I had to use my browser cache and
some detective work to figure out which auctions I was looking at. You
would not have found them due to that.
I had access to a lot of stuff while I worked for sun, and was able to
get most anything from ftp servers. When I started there was no web,
but just internal ftp sites, and you could find lists of where to go
looking.
It was about a year into the time I worked there before the newfangled
thing, Netscape showed up and internal web sites were starting up. No
download, however. There were lists of where the ftp servers were, but
you had to copy and paste to ftp commands to download things.
I don't recall the X86 wabi having any security keys, so the disk may
load and run.
Jim
<bottom posted so only Liam will see it.
:-)>
I'm not the only one, am I?!
Thanks! I see it's a US-only listing which is why I couldn't find it.
I am tempted to try to auction my copy of the Caldera version now, but
I doubt it's really worth anything...
3689
days inactive
3690
days old
10 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
a.phillip.garcia＠gmail.com -
azd30＠telus.net -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
jon＠jonworld.com -
jws＠jwsss.com -
lproven＠gmail.com -
other＠oryx.cc