UNIX running MSDOS as a subroutine..Infoworld article

[universe at byucsa.UUCP]

>From InfoWorld, March 19, 1984

Stolen without permission...condensed without restraint

Utility lets DOS programs
run on Unix systems

A new software company has been formed that may have the answer
to the slow acceptance of the Unix operating system on microcomputers.
Uniform Software Systems, to be based in Santa Barbara, California,
plans to release a utility software product this fall that will be
designed to let MS-DOS application programs, such as WordStar, Lotus
1-2-3 and dBase II, run on Unix-based systems. MS-DOS is the operating
system for the IBM-PC, PC compatibles and several other 16-bit comuters.

The product, as yet unnamed and unpriced, will offer DOS users
the advantages of Unix's multiuser and multitasking capabilities and its
near machine independence. Under the Unix operating system, only minimal
modifications are needed to move applications software from one processor
and hardware environment to another.

"The unique architechure of this product allows the DOS operating system
to run as a Unix process, concurrent with other Unix programs," said
Uniform's director, Peter Weiner. 

Weiner was the founder and CEO of Interactive Systems, the developer
of the Unix-based PC/IX operating systems that IBM recently announced for
its personal computer. He is currently a director of Interactive, which he
said may become the marketing arm for Uniform's first software package.

Unix's lack of applications software is not universally regarded as
a problem, however. "People complain about the lack of application software,
with 3,000 packages available for the IBM PC and only a few hundred for
Unix," said Peter Marvit, senior analyst at Yates Ventures in Los Altos,
California. "But how many of them are really worthwhile? In the Unix world
almost every single one of them is worth looking at."

For Weiner this venture can be seen as the culmination of a long
love affair with Unix. "In 1973 I went to the Rand Corporation and Unix
was then available only to universities," he recalled. "I wanted Unix
for the Rand Corporation so I got the first commercial license."



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[The article, which was quite a bit longer, and I have condensed without
conscience, said that William Agee, former chairman of Bendix, and Peter
Wensberg, who used to work for Atari, are also bigwigs in the company.]

Daryl