A/UX in Canada

[Rick Giles]

In article <816 at amc-vlsi.UUCP> ryan (Ryan Jorgenson) writes:
>Can ANYBODY answer a few SIMPLE questions about A/UX?  Apparently none
>of the "Official" sources here in Canada can.
>
>I've tried all the "Authorized Apple Dealers" and even APPLE CANADA;
>no answers.  Here are the questions:
>    What does the Documenter's Workbench contain?

The Documenter's Workbench is quite complete, with nroff, troff, psroff, etc.

>    What does the Programmer's Workbench contain?

C, assembler, FORTRAN 77, LEX, YACC, limited Mac Toolbox access, etc.

>    How do I get A/UX in Canada?

I got A/UX 1.0 directly from Apple Canada about 18 months ago. It was on
an external 80 meg drive and about $3,000! I got also got a full document
set for about $650.

>		The Authorized Apple Dealer I talked to said that the word 
>	he got from APPLE Canada was that they MIGHT sell A/UX to me IF I 
>	could prove that I wasn't going to need support.  HOLD ON A SECOND!
>	Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't APPLE supposed to be TRYING to 
>	sell A/UX? Rather than fighting tooth and claw to PREVENT a sale?

At the time I bought it, I think I had the option of purchasing a support
agreement, but declined. A/UX has performed reasonably well since I bought it.
(At least until yesterday, when something gobbled up all my free space.
I just launched a query on the network about that.)

Also, the few technical questions I previously launched on the network were
ably answered on the network by people at Apple, Cupertino.

>Is there ANYBODY in Canada running A/UX? If so, HOW DID YOU PRY IT OUT OF
>APPLE?!

Money.

>     If I can manage to pry A/UX out of Apple Canada, how hard can it be
>     to get it up and running? (I presently administer a network of 10
>     Sun Workstations running SunOS, and I am reasonably familiar with the
>     System V UNIX environment as well.) 

I had no problem setting it up. The manuals are quite complete. I'm connected
via Ethernet to a Sun 4 and a couple of Sun 3 workstations, and NFS, rlogin,
ftp, etc. all work well. Since Apple's 80 meg disk has little free space, I
find NFS especially useful.  Yellow Pages is also provided, but I don't have
a need for it.

I also installed sbprolog, and the X Window System, V11 R3, both from source,
and had no problems. I now have Apple's release of the X Window System,
and it's nice to be able to serve clients on the Sun 4. (If only I had
a 3 button mouse!)

Some other unsolicited observations:

1. My experience is that, with no other users, A/UX cc, ld, etc. take twice
as long as on our diskless Sun 3/60's.

2. The intergration between A/UX and Mac OS is an abomination. I have to 
reboot the Mac to go from A/UX to Finder/Multifinder. I can only transfer
files from Mac OS MFS floppy to A/UX. I get around this by ftp to the Sun 4.
Presumably A/UX 1.1 is better.

3. If I had to do it again, I'd find out the part numbers and prices, and
then just place the order. I recommend getting the manual set. If you're
on an Ethernet network, get an Ethernet board. If you're using the X Window
System, you can install it from the sources.  I would expect no A/UX support
from Apple Canada.

>					Thanks.

You're welcome.

Rick Giles


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