early networking (was Re: G4 cube (was Re: 68K Macs with MacOS 7.5 still in production use...))

[Liam Proven]

On 14 September 2016 at 17:56, js at cimmeri.com <js at cimmeri.com> wrote:
> I too started in 1988, doing the same kind of work (mid-Atlantic region,
> USA), same number and types of places.  Just to compare:
>
> * Banyan VINES    (never saw)
> * Corvus          (saw once)
> * ARCnet          (saw many times)

I honestly don't know what cabling SAGE MainLAN used. It may have been
related. D9 connectors, about 4Mb/s speed?

> * LittleBigLAN    (never heard of or saw)
> * The $25 Network (never heard of or saw)

Odd... They were sold in the UK as being American imports...

> * NFS             (there were SUNs at the-then NBS (Bureau of Standards)
>                   (but I rarely encountered UNIX anywhere)

I put in a load of Xenix and later some SCO Unix boxes running
multiuser accounts, often replacing CCP/M and CDOS systems -- but they
were never networked.

I never saw CP/M networked in my life.

> * 3Com 3+Share    (saw only one place -- at NASA Goddard)

Weird. Quite a big product in the UK in the '80s.

> * Sage MainLAN    (never heard of)

SAGE -- British accountancy s/w company. US tax law is different;
Brits can't use US financial or accounts s/w. Gave an opening for UK
players to get big.

> * Personl Netware (never saw)

Typo for "Personal" of course.

Wasn't big here.

> * Netware Lite    (never saw)

Ditto.

One of 'em was bundled with Novell DOS 6 or 7. I forget which. That
gave it a boost but it was a PITA to configure. Already, by then,
people were mainly shipping NDIS drivers for WfWg which _did_ work but
in a painful way and wasted a ton of RAM.

> * DEC Pathworks   (saw only two places -- NASA G and NBS)

It wasn't big but a lot of VAX users ran it. It bundled a ton of
useful stuff from email to X.11 servers, but it was as slow as hell,
burned RAM and was a pig to configure. Never played nice with WfWg.

> Most frequently worked with:
> * Netware 3.x&  4.x

2 and 3 here. 4 was the beginning of the end.  It foisted mandatory
NDS on a million single-served microbusinesses who had no need for it,
and the needless complexity and pain killed the product. Most
egregious case of corporate suicide I ever saw.

> * Lantastic

I forgot that. I think I saw that very occasionally.

> * Windows / Microsoft

Well, yes.


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