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10 Unix

Ever since Unix got popular in the 1980s, there has been an ongoing effort

on the part of the Unix vendors to “standardize” the operating system.

Although it often seems that this effort plays itself out in press releases and

not on programmers’ screens, Unix giants like Sun, IBM, HP, and DEC

have in fact thrown millions of dollars at the problem—a problem largely

of their own making.

Why Unix Vendors Really Don’t Want a Standard Unix

The push for a unified Unix has come largely from customers who see the

plethora of Unixes, find it all too complicated, and end up buying a PC

clone and running Microsoft Windows. Sure, customers would rather buy a

similarly priced workstation and run a “real” operating system (which they

have been deluded into believing means Unix), but there is always the risk

that the critical applications the customer needs won’t be supported on the

particular flavor of Unix that the customer has purchased.

The second reason that customers want compatible versions of Unix is that

they mistakenly believe that software compatibility will force hardware

vendors to compete on price and performance, eventually resulting in

lower workstation prices.

Of course, both of these reasons are the very same reasons that workstation

companies like Sun, IBM, HP, and DEC really don’t want a unified version

of Unix. If every Sun, IBM, HP, and DEC workstation runs the same soft-

ware, then a company that has already made a $3 million commitment to

Sun would have no reason to stay with Sun’s product line: that mythical

company could just as well go out and purchase a block of HP or DEC

workstations if one of those companies should offer a better price.

It’s all kind of ironic. One of the reasons that these customers turn to Unix

is the promise of “open systems” that they can use to replace their propri-

etary mainframes and minis. Yet, in the final analysis, switching to Unix

has simply meant moving to a new proprietary system—a system that hap-

pens to be a proprietary version of Unix.

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 91 09:37:23 PST

From: [email protected]

To: UNIX-HATERS

Subject: Unix names

Perhaps keeping track of the different names for various versions of

Unix is not a problem for most people, but today the copy editor here