Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-arpa!male!pitstop!texsun!texbell!egsner!u-word!egs
From: egs@u-word.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Why unix doesn't catch on
Message-ID: <10600003@u-word>
Date: 25 Apr 89 08:47:04 GMT
References: <13527@steinmetz.ge.com>
Lines: 66
Nf-ID: #R:steinmetz.ge.com:13527:u-word:10600003:000:3187
Nf-From: u-word.UUCP!egs    Apr 24 09:28:00 1989


Written  8:25 pm  Apr 21, 1989 by allbery@ncoast.ORG in u-word:micro-ibmpc
+--------------
| As quoted from <258@jwt.UUCP> by john@jwt.UUCP (John Temples):
| +---------------
| | Now that Microport appears to be defunct, I wonder how WordPerfect Corp.
| | feels about entering the 386 Unix market.  Will this frighten off other
| | prospective Unix developers like Lotus?  I suppose Unix will survive
| | through it all, but can it succeed commercially?
| +---------------
| 
| Why not?  You seem to think that the demise of Microport signals the demise
| of 386 Unix; may I point out that with the number of companies selling 386
| Unix (SCO, Interactive and AT&T, and formerly Microport, not to mention left-
| field types) there are more than the market really needs.
+--------------

        I dislike seeing the continual writing off of Microport.  They
are still operating, still selling the product ( a very good one, and in
my opinion, much better one than the compition that I have seen ) and still
shipping product.

	Microport is in Chapter 11.  That means that they have more
liabilities than assests, but are trying to resolve the problem without
liquidating the firm.  Ie. they are reorganizing while continuing to
operate.  Other firms have done this successfully ( although I can't
think of any firms in the computer industry at the moment ) such as
Chrysler, PennCentral Corp., and many others...

	End of Microport defunct Flame.  Now on to some more reasonable
comments..

+--------------
|                                                           It's unsurprising
| that the companies which can't cut it fall by the wayside.  Nor is it
| surprising to me that Microport was the first, given that they have acquired
| a reputation for buggy systems.  (Well, systems with more experimental parts
| than should be in a supposed production system.)  Of such parts are made a
| free-market system.  
+---------------

	Yes, it is a free market system, and if Microport does fall to
the wayside, I will be saddened, but the system will have worked, and I
will use the product of one of the survivors..  ( since on the 386,
they are all pretty much interchangable.. )

+---------------
| WordPerfect Corp. sells not only a Microport version of WP 4.2, but also an
| SCO Xenix version.  (And the "A"-word, which I'm sure you can guess by now...
| ;-) I'd guess that the SCO version sold better than the Microport version
| anyway.  If WordPerfect wants the market, it'll release a 386/IX version of
| WP; it wouldn't take much work to change the Microport one.  (The biggest
| win of Unix is that this is so often true.)
+---------------

        WordPerfect may already work on Interactive 386/ix.  I have
copies of both, and have transfered several binaries built on the
Microport box onto the Interactive box ( version 1.0.6 ) and had them
run with no problems..  Granted, I have not tried WordPerfect on either
Microport or Interactive.

-----
Eric Schnoebelen,			JBA Incorporated, Lewisville, Tx.
egs@u-word.dallas.tx.us				...!killer!u-word!egs
	"...we have normality"..."Anything you still can't cope with is
therefore your own problem..."	-- Trisha McMillian, HHGG