[ale] (OT) Fate of SCO

[Chris Fowler]

On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 09:14 -0400, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> I still
> have a copy of that TCP/IP software and the SCO UNIX SVR 3.2 v 4.2.
> That was where SCO had backported SVR4 stuff into their SVR 3.2 stuff.
> It sounds like you were using SCO versions later than that. 

We had plenty of that out in the field but I never bothered keeping a
copy.

The uucp stuff was fun.  

The company I worked for had an advanced network for the time.   Most
folks had IBM3151 terminals but there were a few folks with PCs running
TCP/IP.  I installed a Slackware system to act as a gateway to the
Internet.  We had a partial T from Cable & Wireless.  This was awesome.
I would dial in from home and use double vision to take control of a
3151 on a desk.  I then logged back into the AIX system and initiated
downloads.  I could disconnect my modem while the transfer was still
progressing on the terminal.  If I got upset with someone on IRC, I
would just grab another terminal and do 'ping -f'.  Within a minute or
so I would see them drop :)  Most people back them had dial-up Internet
service.


Our main system was a RS/6000 running AIX with many serial ports.  These
had printers, modems, and terminals.  We used Multi-Tech modems to
connect up to the remote sites.  All our customers had these modems for
tech support.  

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.

The biggest problem we faced moving from terminals to telnet was that
our software used tty names as a security feature.  We could tie users
to a particular terminal.  Very hard to do when your assigned the next
available tty.

I do not remember any 386 version of AIX.  Possibly the RT?  We did have
a couple old HP systems (pre HP-UX).

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