Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!male!dlp From: dlp@zule.EBay.Sun.COM (Dan Pritchett) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Sun != Open Archtecture Message-ID: Date: 17 Dec 90 23:32:41 GMT References: <36911@cup.portal.com> <5089@trantor.harris-atd.com> <1990Dec16.222542.28236@erbe.se> Sender: news@male.EBay.Sun.COM Lines: 31 In-reply-to: prc@erbe.se's message of 16 Dec 90 22:25:42 GMT In article <1990Dec16.222542.28236@erbe.se> prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) writes: > But Sun will be running SVr4 themselves. They are pretty much locked >into SVr4, and in fact, SunOS 5.0 will be SVr4. As Sun will tell you if you ask, their SVR4 o/s will be *based* on SVR4, but will also contain numerous proprietary extensions "to ensure our leadership". Also, the SPARC version of SVR4 that anyone can license from AT&T will not have the SunOS 4.x compatibility support built-in. Clone vendors will have to construct that part themselves, if they want to be able to run programs from SunOS. Few of our users buy our systems to run only the software available in the Sun Price List. Most buy additional software from ISV's that are available on SPARC. These ISV's will have no incentive to target their applications to the compatibility mode of SunOS/SVR4 when they can use the SPARC ABI (SVR4 + SCD) and hit all of the SPARC platforms including ours. The compatibility with SunOS 4.x is like the OpenWindows compatibility with SunView. It lets users get on the new platform immediately and bring along their applications from the prior release as until they are available on the new platform. This is of course my opinion and does not represent an official statement of policy from my employer. -- Dan Pritchett | ARPA/Internet: dlp@zule.EBay.Sun.COM Sun Federal System Engineer | UUCP: ...!sun!dlp -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've read plenty of books, about heros and crooks. And I've learned much from both of their styles... --Jimmy Buffet