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

[Jerry Kemp]

On 04/26/16 03:25 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:

>
>> A/UX - another Apple Unix that (originally) only ran on specific hardware.
>> There is now an emulation project called "ShoeBill" that will allow you to
>> run A/UX on top of other hardware.
>
> I've seen that project before.  The only issue is that you need a legal ROM
> image and I don't have one.  If I had a machine to dump the ROM from, I'd
> probably just use that, instead.  The project is still really neat, though.
>

All of this stuff, OS, ROM's, other misc code, is widely and easily available 
out there on the Interwebs.  I won't say any more or provide any specifics, as I 
like being on this list and don't want to get booted for sharing locations for 
unlicensed software.

Ultimately, it boils down to what your morals are, when using an abandoned 
product from a couple of decades ago for hobbyist and/or learning usage only.

I'm certain that anyone here who decided to write a new software product to run 
their business on, that ran on top of A/UX would immediately be sending some 
money Apple's way.





>> AIX - disclaimer - nothing modern going on here either.
>
> Hehe, careful, you don't want all the AIX fans coming out of the woodwork
> on the attack.  AIX is one that I had heard some negativity about when I
> first started learning it (I regularly learn new Unix variants just for
> fun). Someone called it "Ain't Unix" (and for heaven's sake it wasn't me).
> Now, I can see it's strengths and weaknesses.

Sorry for any misunderstanding here, you are reading something into this here 
that was never intended.

What I mean here, unlike the other products discussed in this thread, that were 
dropped/discontinued after a couple of releases decades ago, AIX wasn't.  I'm 
not up to date on the Current version of AIX, but I'm thinking 7.x, maybe 8.x????

The stuff I am playing with is 1.x, again, from a couple of decades ago, on a 
hardware platform that IBM abandoned.  Nothing more is implied.  Nothing to read 
between the lines.

Unix is a very religious subject.  My last intent is to get on someone's bad 
side here.

Moving on, all of the AIX 1.x stuff is widely and easily available for easy 
download at various locations.

Jerry



> I won't enumerate any since
> folks will go ballistic, I'm sure.  I'll just say this, it's got some
> decent attributes that might surprise people who hate it.  It still not my
> favorite, but it grew on me.
>
>> AIX 1.x, among other CPU's, also ran on x86 hardware.  I am close to
>> having AIX 1.x running in Bochs::
>
> Yes, I remember reading about AIX running on some special class of PS/2
> machines.  I've seen photos of AIX floppy disks for that platform.  However,
> I wonder if it goes out to check your BIOS or some microchannel jiggery
> pokery to see if you have an "entitlement" to run it. If you find a way to
> make it work and a source for the software, please let me know, too. Thanks!
>
> -Swift
>