Hi,
I'm new to Xenix and am in the process of setting up a first system.

So I'm interested in obtaining appropriate software. I'm coming from a
Linux/GNU GPL background and and wondering about the availability and
shareability of software - both OS versions and apps. I understand
there are Keys? How restrictive are they? Do they prevent sharing,
swapping, mixing etc?

Can one purchase (or otherwise acquire) licences or copies of software?
Is there any agreement or licence waiving similar to that by Caldera
wrt Unix versions 1-7 but excluding System lll and System V?
http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Caldera-license.pdf

Any other advice to offer?

Willy

Willy enscribed:
| Hi,
| I'm new to Xenix and am in the process of setting up a first system.

Finding hardware will be an interesting experiment. I've a hard drive
with Xenix on it but think I inadvertently threw out my last 486
motherboard.

| So I'm interested in obtaining appropriate software. I'm coming from a
| Linux/GNU GPL background and and wondering about the availability and
| shareability of software - both OS versions and apps. I understand
| there are Keys? How restrictive are they? Do they prevent sharing,
| swapping, mixing etc?
|
| Can one purchase (or otherwise acquire) licences or copies of software?
| >From who? Who is the current copyright holder of Xenix products?

There is no single copyright holder, just like OpenServe, there are a
multitude of copyrights on Xenix. Microsoft and Tandy will both be
prominent in the copyright list.

| Is there any agreement or licence waiving similar to that by Caldera
| wrt Unix versions 1-7 but excluding System lll and System V?
| http://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Caldera-license.pdf

See Microsoft and Tandy and unnamed others above.

Others have more first hand knowledge of the Xenix lineage, but I think
it went something like this. Microsoft more or less started Xenix,
Tandy got involved, decided to do the work themselves and eventually
got SCO to make it work. Xenix was alive, well and flourishing on
Tandy machines when the PC was in its infancy.
--
================================================== ========================
Tom Parsons tom@tegan.com
================================================== ========================

In article <1135753843.373132.250020@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups .com> "Willy" <wgm@telus.net> writes:
$I'm new to Xenix and am in the process of setting up a first system.

Why?

The last version of Xenix was released well over a decade
ago. Even by the mid-1990s, a lot of then-current systems were
unsuitable for Xenix; it had problems with many Pentium CPUs
(and I'm not talking about Pentium 4 or 3 or 2 or even pro, or even
the highest-speed Pentium-with-nothing-after-it CPUs; even a 100 MHz
Pentium could be too fast in some systems), often had issues with
floppy drive controllers, had pretty restrictive limits on hard disk
space, couldn't use more than 16 MB of RAM, etc. Unless you have
some early-1990s (or earlier) vintage hardware lying around on
which to run it, don't be surprised if you can't get it to
install in the first place, let alone to run stably.

$So I'm interested in obtaining appropriate software. I'm coming from a
$Linux/GNU GPL background

I have to wonder ... if you're coming from a Linux background, why
not stay there? Xenix had its good points back in the day, but
today's Linux is, well, at least a decade and a half more modern
(quite possibly more, as the ancient underpinnings of Xenix were
definitely showing their age even back when it was still a current
product).

And this is from someone who's made part of his living for
the last 15 years supporting various SCO products and is writing this
note on a computer running SCO OpenServer 5.0.7; try running the
notion of using an antique commercial Unix version past some Linux
folks and you'll probably see them laugh so hard they pee themselves.
Either that or they'll hear "SCO" and spit on you; either way,
there will likely be bodily fluids involved.

$ I understand
$there are Keys? How restrictive are they? Do they prevent sharing,
$swapping, mixing etc?

Well, you can't install without an appropriate license key.
Legally, you can't use the same key on more than one system.
Technically, the only way they'll know about each other is if
you install TCP/IP (an optional extra package) on both and put
them on the same network.

$Can one purchase (or otherwise acquire) licences or copies of software?

Not first-hand; Xenix was discontinued, hmm, I'm guessing around
1994, give or take a couple of years. You may find someone who
is willing to sell a copy they're no longer using. This is
illegal if they've used their Xenix license as a trade-up;
if they simply stopped using it, then it's probably perfectly
legal for them to sell it to you. Watch out for disk rot;
10+ year old floppies tend to have problems.

$>From who? Who is the current copyright holder of Xenix products?

As Tom pointed out, there are a number of companies who own
copyrights covering parts of Xenix. The company which ended up
as (AFAIK) the sole vendor of Xenix in later years was SCO.

$Is there any agreement or licence waiving similar to that by Caldera
$wrt Unix versions 1-7 but excluding System lll and System V?

Not AFAIK. SCO used to offer a free license for some versions of
OpenServer in the mid-to-late 1990s, but never did that with Xenix.
--
Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>
Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/

On December 29, 2005 05:02 am, you wrote:
Well, it's not so much a question of the latest and greatest as it
is of computer heritage. Unfortunately, I don't have a Vax in the
basement, so I can't really get into ancient unix, except perhaps
via emulator, but I do have some old 486 hardware that might do the
job. Xenix and Coherent were current when I first got interested in
computers so I thought I'd tinker a bit with a few old unices and
see what's what. See if I can send an email or two, compile a
program maybe.

No need for bodily fluids. For production purposes, I intend to
keep using linux. Xenix is more of a passing interest - a personal
project. It may interest you to know that many of the current linux
ports run on old hardware - like the Atari and Amiga (M68k).

I have no interest in SCO's current commercial products. I'll let
the courts pass judgement on their IP claims, although as a linux
user, there's no doubt as to where my loyalties in that matter lie.
My interest is not in SCO, but in Xenix - a product which the
current company no longer supports or sells.

to check them. Probably check the floppy drive too. Do it once and
back them up to CD.

Thanks for the pointers,

willy

In article <1135870673.420375.74690@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups. com> "Willy" <wgm@telus.net> writes:
$On December 29, 2005 05:02 am, you wrote:
$>?$I'm new to Xenix and am in the process of setting up a first
$>?system.
$>?? ?Why?
$
$Well, it's not so much a question of the latest and greatest as it
$is of computer heritage. Unfortunately, I don't have a Vax in the
$basement, so I can't really get into ancient unix, except perhaps
$via emulator, but I do have some old 486 hardware that might do the
$job.

OK, fair'nuff. And your 486 hardware will probably not run up
your electricity bill as much as a VAX would :-)

$Ok. I suppose I should try and diff my floppies with someone else
$to check them.

If you have access to someone else's diskettes for the same version,
sure, that's a good plan. If you only have your own, then simply
seeing if you can read each one from one end to the other is probably
sufficient.

Do you have access to any documentation for your version of Xenix?
There is some info on it in the SCO FAQ at pcunix.com, though by
the time I put together early versions of that FAQ back in the
mid-to-late 1990s, Xenix was already fading into history so the FAQ
focuses more on SCO Unix.

I'd mentioned that TCP/IP was an optional (extra-cost) package
for Xenix. So was the development system (C compiler, headers,
libraries). Some more recent SCO products include the headers and
libraries as part of the base package, so you can use an alternative
compiler (read: gcc) if you don't want to pay for the commercial
compiler, but that was never done for Xenix. I'm not sure if there
was ever a viable alternative development system for Xenix.
There used to be a fair selection of precompiled software on the
Internet for Xenix (which was a good thing, since the Xenix
development system was, um, cranky and it was often challenging
to port software of any significant complexity to Xenix) but
I'd imagine much of it has vanished over the years.
--
Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>
Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/