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Enterprise Unix Roundup: Ghosts of Xenix Past

Posted by alc on · 1 comment
ServerWatch; By Brian Proffitt 		Mail this story
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Various theories are circulating as to why Microsoft has been so gung-ho about intellectual property enforcement lately. I have opined about it myself in other venues, basically putting forth the theory that the staff at Redmond is running a bit scared right now as they watch Linux slowly encompass the server market.

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Comments (1)

mwtomlinson ·
When my (at the time) company relocated me from GA to CA at the end of 1986, one of the first things I was told to do was to come up with a call-tracking system that would run on each support person's PC, collect data to a central point and make it reportable. "Oh, and by the way, you can't ask IT for any help - and, no, it can't be on the token-ring network".

In our software library, I found a dusty copy of SCO Xenix (with multiple "licensed by Microsoft" notices) and installed it on an underused 80286 machine in our lab. I then hacked together a proof-of-concept database in DataFlex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dataflex) and found a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident, for you whippersnappers) terminal emulation program that ran on DOS, connected my desktop PC to the server (via RS-232 serial cable) and showed the lash-up to my boss.

He loved it. Hired a consultant to smooth out the DataFlex app, gave me money to buy a couple of multi-port serial cards for the 286 (and a multi-user license for the terminal TSR I'd found) and let me run RS-232 cable to each cubicle.

It worked - badly at times (until I got the kernel configured correctly), but it worked. This was my introduction to the wonderful world of *nix and I've been there ever since. Oh, and it was fun p****ing off the IT guys, too...

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