Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!enzyme.berkeley.edu!cswarren
From: cswarren@enzyme.berkeley.edu (Warren Gish;133 Biochem;x3-9219)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: A/UX cost
Keywords: toolbox features, UN*X gurus, NeXT, bad marketing
Message-ID: <6982@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 14 Feb 88 06:48:09 GMT
References: <2489@tekig4.TEK.COM> <3600018@iuvax>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: cswarren@enzyme.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Warren Gish)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 43


Here are a few features of Mac toolbox support under the current version
of A/UX that potential buyers should be interested in knowing:

	(1) Mac applications can not print
	(2) only a single Mac application can run at a time
	(3) no color support for Mac applications under A/UX
	(4) file transfers between an A/UX disk partition and
	    a MacOS partition must be made thru an MFS floppy
	    disk intermediary
	(5) Apple estimates only about 1% or less of the current MacOS
	    applications will run under A/UX in their present form
	    (although the changes necessary for A/UX toolbox-compatibility
	    are said to be quite small)
	(6) extra hardware must be purchased in order to use LocalTalk
	    for printing on a LaserWriter or other communications

Also, the MacII can not be configured to automatically boot A/UX
when powered on -- but maybe there will be a MacOS CDEV+INIT sometime
in the future that will automatically boot A/UX after the MacOS comes up?
The power switch on the MacII will require that the unit be physically
turned back on after an interruption of AC power, unless (I'm guessing)
the power-on switch is taped down.

According to MacWeek, some of the toolbox deficiencies (1-4?) are scheduled
to be fixed this summer.  Until then, it appears to me that the current
release of the A/UX toolbox is really to allow developers to prepare for
a summer A/UX marketing fest.

Are there any UN*X gurus out there that can tell us what A/UX,
with its System V Release 2-compatibility, lacks in comparison
to what NeXT is rumored to have in its System V Release 3?
Isn't Release 3 what AT&T is trying to standardize the world upon?

Hey, Apple!  Say it ain't so, that all us MacII owners that already
bought 5 MB RAM and an 80 MB disk don't have to buy it all again just
to get A/UX.  @#%&!

Warren Gish
IS&T
Evans Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
cswarren@violet.berkeley.edu