[rescue] Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2005 at 04:20:58PM +0300, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 12, 2005 at 08:26:37AM -0400, Sandwich Maker wrote:
> Circa 1990, there were at least 5 companies I knew of that had a source
> license and sold "improved" versions of System V, with the improvments
> being in performance. Most of that in device drivers.

Believe it or not, but Dell had their own SVR4.0 based Unix.

> I can only remember three of them, Everex (ESIX), Interactive (which later
> became Solaris via a stay in Rochester), and SCO (the real one), but I'm
> sure there were others. Not counting SGI, DEC, HP, Apple all of which sold
> a version of System V. 
> 
> I'm not counting SUN because AFIK, they did not buy a license from AT&T,
> they bought a company which had a license. 

Actually they did buy a source license, from Novell, during the time
that Novell owned UNIX(tm).  They also bought Interactive from 
Kodak, but that did not give them unlimited distribution without
royalties. 
 
I can't find an authoritative source for the amount - I remember
reading that Sun paid $150 million to buy their way out of ever having
to pay royalties again, but other sources say they paid Novell $82.5
million.

--Patrick