On 11/12/2005 at 12:34 PM nospam212-cctalk at yahoo.com wrote: The company was hyped quite a bit with a healthy (for those days) dose of startup capital; my impression of the firm from my position as a contractor was that an awful lot of money was wasted just fooling around with things not directly related to product development. I believe that their entry system target price was $5000, not bad in those days. But the PC, although not a Unix box, was sufficient to do it in. One very rare item from this company would be their color graphics terminal. I've only seen a prototype, but someone told me that it had actually made it into production. IIRC, Bill Joy was on contract to FS during most of the firm's existence. Cheers, Chuck

On 11/12/2005 at 4:03 PM Doc Shipley wrote: Well, let's face it, Unix on a what--8 or 12 Mhz 68K isn't the best solution in the world. It wasn't until support for virtual memory was added to 68K systems and Unix that a real workhorse was possible. Heaven knows, there were plenty of 68K systems being paraded around as being Unix-capable. In about 1985, the firm I was with decided to add to the VAX 11/750 they had. I wanted to simply add another 750, but was overruled by a department manager who claimed that a Plexus 68K box was more economical and just as efficient--using, as evidence, some phonied-up benchmark results. What a miserable experience that was--so slow it was almost useless. So, I guess the Fortune terminal that I've got is more torch-scavenging material--it's got a nice power supply. Cheers, Chuck

Yes, thanks. I'll contact you off list. I'd like to get these system boxes I have up and running. David --- Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote: ----- "When the mind is free of any thought or judgement, then and only then can we know things as they are." David Williams