27 Sep
2018
27 Sep
'18
7:52 a.m.
On 27 Sep 2018, at 09:35, Paul Ruizendaal <pnr(a)planet.nl> wrote:
I am almost certain of the existence of a Unix variant for the Olivetti M24 which was an
8086-equipped PC (The M24 was rebranded as an AT&T 6300 if memory serves me
correctly). It might have been Xenix or Venix but I honestly cannot remember it as I
certainly recall Xenix floppies & manuals making the rounds later on 286s in Italy but
I only faintly recall the M24 Unix.
Arrigo
Did the 5150
have a UNIX available anywhere near its launch date? I know
that it had DOS, CP/M-86, and the UCSD p-System relatively early on. It's
not clear to me whether Xenix ever supported the original PC; were there
other early porting efforts?
The first version of Venix-86 ran on the PC/XT, almost a 5150, in May 83. It was V7
based. I think it was the first Unix on a PC.
Heinz Lycklama (who did Unix LSX and MX at Bell labs in the 70’s) did PC/IX about a year
later, based on Sys III. This was marketed by IBM.
Based on the early Xenix porting chart here
http://seefigure1.com/2014/04/15/xenixtime.html , a PC/XT version of Xenix appeared around
the same time as PC/IX. However, if the chart is correct there may have been Xenix
versions for other 8086-based machines a year before that. Note that in this chart the
“Xenix 2.0” and “Xenix 3.0” labels refer to MS internal versions, i.e. these numbers are
not to be confused with the marketing labels IBM PC Xenix 2.0 and 3.0.