Xenix Addons and Software?

[madcrow]

Xenix is all over the Internet. Software that runs on it (Lyrix, Foxbase, etc) even unbundled OS components (*roff and the C compiler) seem to be nowhere. Do none of these things survive or has nobody simply put them online? I'd love to explore a vintage PC Unix setup, but doing so is hard when there's basically nothing to explore!

[barythrin]

It's tough when the copyrights and ownership still exist. It sucks but is an unfortunate reality of the patent and copyright market in the states. Without soap-boxing there are a lot of companies that seem to be alive today only to buy the rights to old technology, get the patents, then sue other companies for royalties.

You might find it from someone here who has it and can offer it to you for no profit (sorta grey area.. at least not making money off of it) or searching some abandonware or software collections in various forms/sites.

Vintage PC I think is the keyword you're looking for, an IBM compatible version of Xenix?

[SunDown79]

I have about 50 or so floppies with Xenix material if I remember correctly.
Just never did anything with them as I dont know Xenix. What does it run on for example ?
I wouldnt mind having a go with it and in the process have a look at what I all have.

[barythrin]

It's probably better explained somewhere else like wikipedia but Xenix itself was basically Microsoft's brand of a unix operating system. It was (at least my understanding) meant more for a server environment than a home operating system but did come out for several platforms. The TRS-80 model II series for instance is one that I saw it commonly for. So it would run unix-like applications or compilers as mentioned above. Usually was meant for multiple users to be able to log in and run software on the server or share resources like files, etc. Could run anything from proprietary software a company used to do estimates or product database inventory, to shared source code which multiple developers could modify and compile.

[natcha]

Xenix was very interesting. We used a Model 12 at work with two terminals and a 12meg hard disk. Ran our accounting and a database on it for several years in the early 80's. Later, I had a Xenix system at home - SCO Xenix 286. I was fortunate that a friend of mine gave me many software packages, still sealed, after his company started phasing Xenix out. I used the 286 system to tie together my packet radio system. Worked really well. Unfortunately, I got rid of he stuff a long time ago.

I'm still trying to get a Xenix system runnig, just for kicks. I recently aquired a complete SCO Xenix 386 package with 3.5" disks, software key, and all the manuals. Currently, I don't have a working 386 system to install it on. But will someday.

Bill

[madcrow]

Xenix was very interesting. We used a Model 12 at work with two terminals and a 12meg hard disk. Ran our accounting and a database on it for several years in the early 80's. Later, I had a Xenix system at home - SCO Xenix 286. I was fortunate that a friend of mine gave me many software packages, still sealed, after his company started phasing Xenix out. I used the 286 system to tie together my packet radio system. Worked really well. Unfortunately, I got rid of he stuff a long time ago.

I'm still trying to get a Xenix system runnig, just for kicks. I recently aquired a complete SCO Xenix 386 package with 3.5" disks, software key, and all the manuals. Currently, I don't have a working 386 system to install it on. But will someday.

Bill

If you have a 3.5 inch drive for a modern computer, you SHOULD be able to image your disks and install Xenix in QEMU to play around with it while you wait for a real 386. As I mentioned in my initial inquiry, however, it's not much fun without the layered products.

[natcha]

If you have a 3.5 inch drive for a modern computer, you SHOULD be able to image your disks and install Xenix in QEMU to play around with it while you wait for a real 386. As I mentioned in my initial inquiry, however, it's not much fun without the layered products.

Well, I've tried using Virtual Box on my Windows 7 machine to install Xenix 2.3.1 from some images I have of the floppies. No luck.

But I was able to find a set of Xenix 2.3.4 images and they installed fine. So I now have a version Xenix running in a virtual machine. I even found a two disk set of Cobol for Xenix - tar images and they installed fine. So I guess I could program in Cobol - ugggggh.

But I agree - not much use without the Development Set.


Bill
Smithville, NJ

[natcha]

Just to give an update on my Xenix 386:

Thanks to Billt3565, I now have Xenix 386 2.3.4 running on a 486 tower computer. I put it on a 340mb microdrive, and it also works great on my Omnibook 430 and a Toshiba Libretto 100CT. I had to use an older version DOS - Version 3.3, which only supports a maximum of 32MB drive. But I can now read/write files from the xenix to the Dos side. Hopefully, I can put some tar files I have on the DOS side and then boot Xenix and copy them to the Xenix side to untar and install.

Now if someone could just make the Developers set of disks available.

Thanks again to Bill T. Nice meeting you today.

Bill
Smithville, NJ

[SunDown79]

My software was Xilinx, not Xenix, ahum....

[Megatron-uk]

Just in case anyone didn't see my post earlier in the year; I managed to track down various versions of the development software for SCO Xenix and have put them up for download. The original post is here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcfo...opment-Systems