Cable
Cable4096@nospam.com
Winux: Hoax, Hype,
Wishfull Thinking, Or Real?

Xenix was for 16 bit 286 systems and above, and was 16 bit when last I remember before MS stopped shipping it. Wouldn't it be called Winix instead of Winux then because of the Xenix name? Sounds like Winux is a play on the Linux name, and there already was one guy who claimed he owned the "Linux" name but lost in a lawsuit.

>Seems there is a project that MS does not want the public >to know about yet. It is code-named Winux and it basically >is based on Xenix, Microsoft's version of Unix from the >1980's updated to 32 bit code with the Win32 API added, >and Win32 software being run via virtual machines like NT >does for Win16 code. MS is busy porting it to 64 bit code >for Merced.

If MS doesn't want the public to know about it, why post here? Being able to run modern Windows programs would be a plus, especially if it was built into a Unix OS.

>MS hopes that Winux will close the gap between NT and >Unix, and fire back at Linux, Solaris, Rhapsody/MacOS X, >SCO Unix, and other Unix systems. Unlike Linux, Winux >won't be free or have the source code given out, but it >will be stable and run most of the older Windows 32 bit >software when it comes out in the year 2000. By that time >the 64 bit Windows NT standard will be out, but Winux >should port the Win64 API quite easily. I have been >slipped an alpha copy by insiders at Microsoft that I >know, and its a purple box with Winux on it and clouds >over mountains and a purple skyline. Purple Mountain >Majesties I guess, as Microsoft already took the names of >most of the popular cities on the way from the East Coast >to Redmound, like Chicago, Cario, etc. Seems like the >mountains might be a more logical choice, but I would have >picked some other code name besides Winux.

Why not just license Linux, and add in Win32 support/emulation, distribute the source code and allow free downloads from MS's web site, and then charge $30 for a CD-ROM to install from? Much like MS is giving away IE, only that for Tech Support, you got to call a 1-900 Number or a 1-800 number that takes credit cards on a per/hour fee? You give away the OS for free, but charge for tech support, got to love that, eh? :)

Or Microsoft could built a Windows emulator for the various Unix versions out there and piggyback it to Linux, Solaris, and others? Then develop other technologies for other Unix systems as support libraries that just plug into the OS, and then port Visual C++ and Visual BASIC to various Unix platforms to use those libraries?

>Microsoft already added Active Movie, DirectX, Media >Player, , Display Postscript, ActiveX, DCOM, TAPI, and the >WDM to it. More on the way as IIS and SQL Server get >added, there already is a primative MS-Mail server, but PD >Unix mail servers for POP and IMAP work just as well. That >is the whole beauty of it, finally a Unix that runs >Windows apps from the company that brought you Windows and >Xenix.

I will believe that when I see that. ActiveX/DCOM has already been ported to some versions of Unix or is in the process as we speak. ActiveX/DCOM even was planned to have an AS/400 port. In this way MS hopes to break the hold that ORB and COBRA servers out there that run under Unix, etc.

>They are planning on ports to Alpha, MIPS, and PowerPC >platforms as soon as they find a way to emulate the X86 >instruction set on those platforms. They are starting to >recruit programmers who have written arcade and console >emulation programs on the Internet to head up that part of >the project.

Not bloody likely, if MS dropped MIPS and PPC support in NT after version 4.0, I doubt they will support those with Winux; unless, MS feels that Unix has taken over MIPS and PPC platforms with Linux, Free BSD, etc. and wants to cash in on the Unix craze?

Oh, BTW, most arcade and console emulators use 6502, 8080, Z80, 68000, 6809, and other processors and not the 8086 or even a 486 or Pentium. So I doubt that unless they learn how a 486 or Pentium emulation happens, that there will be any serious development of a PC Emulator under any Unix from Microsoft!

I would like to see references for Winux, like maybe a web page that MS has hidden on their web server like when they had http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/ for the Windows 98 beta testers, or they have newsgroups for beta testers to post bug reports on. Can you give us any?