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Apple Unix Before Mac OS X

Posted by pudge on from the mmmm-taligent dept.

cascadefx writes "I found a great article over at Applefritter about Unix on an Apple before Mac OS X. It seems that Apple played with a commercial version of Unix (AT&T Unix to be exact) on top of which ran the good old 68K Mac OS stuff. Great piece that covers a lot of the UI and architecture. It also has screen shots of the thing up and running in 2001, and the author steps through issues like networking and compiling code on the platform. Enjoy." The article's a good read, and brings back some fond memories ...

17 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. just A/UX, no big secret by tps12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know why the headline and intro here make it sound like this is some kind of top-secret research project that's only now being revealed. Wasn't A/UX a fairly well-known and succesful product?

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    1. Re:just A/UX, no big secret by johnpaul191 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      i don't think i would call it a big success, but it was commercially available. you can still find copies on ebay with the box and everything. it was an early attempt to mess with Unix on Mac hardware, which is very interesting. you wonder if this was some inspiration or ground work for some of the Apple spin-offs years later.

      a Mac email list i am on was talking about this a few months back. chat started when some people were thinking of the *nix options for Macs that can not run OS X. from people that used it, they generally said it was not the easiest thing around to make it useful today. i guess they implied more that by today's standards you are better off with BSD or yellowdog if you are looking for a productive OS. both of those are actively used on old Macs (pre-PPC chips and everything).

    2. Re:just A/UX, no big secret by tps12 · · Score: 2
      both of those are actively used on old Macs (pre-PPC chips and everything).

      Except for the NuBus PPC's (when you're using a NuBus slot!). I've had a 7100 for awhile, and it's built-in Ethernet has never worked, so I have a card in there. MkLinux couldn't deal with it, and last I checked even NetBSD didn't have drivers for it. So far the only bright spot compatability-wise regarding that box is when the CD drive (300i) worked in an old DEC Alpha (3000 series, known for being picky with SCSI CD-ROM drives). Would love to get a *nix running on that...can never have too many platforms. :)

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    3. Re:just A/UX, no big secret by Fluffy+the+Cat · · Score: 3, Informative

      Except for the NuBus PPC's (when you're using a NuBus slot!)

      Have you seen http://nubus-pmac.sourceforge.net/?

  2. OS X is 2nd time around by 4of12 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right, now I remember there used to be some A/UX for the Apple back in the 1980s.

    Then, too, even earlier, there used to be Xenix for the PC by MS.

    Mebbe Redmond should come up with it's own 2nd generation UNIX?

    Then, every major OS could be a UNIX variant and easier to cross port.

    Also, MS would have a chance to prove it can compete on a level playing field. They have talented staff, probably many with UNIX experience. Let them loose instead of having them tend the spaghetti of Windows and Office!

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  3. I seem to remember that FSF killed A/UX by leviramsey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Didn't the FSF forbid porting GPL'd programs (at least those that they owned the copyrights to like GNU Emacs, gcc, bash, etc.) to A/UX as a protest against the Look and Feel lawsuit?

    1. Re:I seem to remember that FSF killed A/UX by tchuladdiass · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, they didn't "forbid" it per se, as in they didn't have it in their license that you couldn't port it to Apple, however they did formally protest it, and encouraged others to not support GNU software on Apple. The software they distributed contained an /etc/Apple.txt file that had a rant about it.

    2. Re:I seem to remember that FSF killed A/UX by jimjag · · Score: 2, Informative

      What they actually *did* do as well was not accept any A/UX specific patches for any GNU stuff. That was one of the big reasons for jagubox, was to provide a place for various ports, but mostly for the GNU stuff.

  4. Network Server 500/700 running AIX by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 3, Informative

    An odder curiosity than A/UX was the Network Server 500/700 that ran AIX.

  5. A/UX manuals at an IKEA near you by Onnimikki · · Score: 2, Funny

    I spotted two identical A/UX manuals at an IKEA. They were there about a month ago and were being used as props. Kinda neato.

  6. Get the A/UX FAQ here: by OrangeHairMan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Get the A/UX FAQ here:
    http://www.faqs.org/faqs/aux-faq/
    It's really long and covers any question that would ever have about this old OS.

    Orange

  7. You're gonna really freak when you find out... by AK47 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Lisa ran UNIX.

  8. I did QA for A/UX by gsbarnes · · Score: 2, Informative

    Back when I was an undergrad at Berkeley (c 1986), a friend and I got a job at a place called Unisoft, as Q/A people for A/UX. Unisoft used to be in far west Berkeley, then moved to Emeryville, and I'm pretty sure they've folded now. The big project was writing/improving A/UX (I'm not sure whether they're the only company that touched the code before or since). I can recall writing bug reports for the new keyboards (ancestors of what Apples still use today) and the man page for sed.

    I can also recall a vaguely major release where the engineers dared us to crash the system. Took me all of 5 minutes using an old trick I saw someone do in a lab: while (1) { mkdir x; cd x}

  9. X also by Jebediah21 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apple also had an X Client as well. I found both the CD's in a drawer in the SysAdmin's office. I should borrow them sometime and get it installed on my old 9500, but with YellowDog out and my lack of time I don't think it will happen anytime soon.

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  10. Re:Old, Old, Old by tps12 · · Score: 2
    Also, I'm wondering about the newsworthiness of this article. Basically it can be summed up as "someone found an old Apple operating system for old Apple hardware, and he installed it, and it worked! Then he tried to compile something using the C compiler, and it worked also!"

    Maybe I will see if I can get Windows 3.1 running on a 486. I'm sure my results (if well documented) would make it on slashdot.

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  11. Ahhhh... by jimjag · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I will always have a fond place in my heart for A/UX. It was, after all, the first thing that made me "noted" among the 'Net community. Yeah, the Jim Jagielski of 'jagubox' is the same Jim Jagielski of Apache/ASF and 'jimjag' of /.

    Oh the horror... the horror

  12. MAE by fraserspeirs · · Score: 2, Informative

    More interesting, and relevant to today, than A/UX is the old Macintosh Application Environment. It was an environment, not unlike classic, that ran System 7 apps on Solaris and other commercial unices.

    Manuals are still available from Apple.

    In fact, Fred Sanchez said at Usenix that the folks that wrote MAE also wrote Classic for Mac OS X.