[ale] (OT) Fate of SCO

[Ken Cochran]

> From: Chris Fowler <cfowler at outpostsentinel.com>
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:34:01 -0400
> Subject: Re: [ale] (OT) Fate of SCO
>
[...]
> Only a few of our advanced customers needed TCP/IP support.  We
> installed it on their desktop using the TCP/IP pack for Windows and they
> got a license for Century's Tiny Term.  We set them up using telnet.

I/we used Kermit for that.  Remember Kermit?  Still today very handy.  :)

> The biggest problem we faced moving from terminals to telnet was that
[...]
>
> I do not remember any 386 version of AIX.  Possibly the RT?  We did have
> a couple old HP systems (pre HP-UX).

Oh yes, I remember - from IBM, AIX/386 I think, and even
originally AIX for the PC.  I remember looking through the
slipcase binder for it (remember those? :) at school and at
Comdex (remember that? :).

Someone told me back then that's where Microport & Interactive
got into the mix - one (ISC?) did the x86 port of Unix under
contract to AT&T and the other (Microport?) did it for IBM.
I could easily have it all wrong - I'm sure there's a Definitive
Source for that "biography."  (Seems I remember seeing a paper
from Eric Raymond on all that.)

> These technologies required us the think about how to use what we had.

That should be "THINK."  :)

> Most of what young chaps take for granted we did not have and we learned
> to deal with the limitations.  Getting a file off some of these systems
> could have been a real chore.  In many cases I simply used uuencode and
> then captured the file via whatever terminal emulation program I was
> running.  Slow but outside of tape was the only way.
>
> I like what we have today but I would not trade the experiences of then
> for anything.

Indeed.

-kc