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Operating RISC: UNIX Standards in the 1990S

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Operating RISC: UNIX Standards in the 1990S Operating RISC: UNIX Standards in the 1990s This case was written by Will Mitchell and Paul Kritikos at the University of Michigan. The case is based on public sources. Some figures are based on case-writers' estimates. We appreciate comments from David Girouard, Robert E. Thomas and Michael Wolff. The note "Product Standards and Competitive Advantage" (Mitchell 1992) supplements this case. The latest International Computerquest Corporation analysis of the market for UNIX- based computers landed on three desks on the same morning. Noel Sharp, founder, chief executive officer, chief engineer and chief bottle washer for the Superbly Quick Architecture Workstation Company (SQAWC) in Mountain View, California hoped to see strong growth predicted for the market for systems designed to help architects improve their designs. In New York, Bo Thomas, senior strategist for the UNIX systems division of A Big Computer Company (ABCC), hoped that general commercial markets for UNIX-based computer systems would show strong growth, but feared that the company's traditional mainframe and mini-computer sales would suffer as a result. Airborne in the middle of the Atlantic, Jean-Helmut Morini-Stokes, senior engineer for the UNIX division of European Electronic National Industry (EENI), immediately looked to see if European companies would finally have an impact on the American market for UNIX-based systems. After looking for analysis concerning their own companies, all three managers checked the outlook for the alliances competing to establish a UNIX operating system standard. Although their companies were alike only in being fictional, the three managers faced the same product standards issues. How could they hasten the adoption of a UNIX standard? The market simply would not grow until computer buyers and application software developers could count on operating system stability. And how could their companies benefit once the standard was determined? The following report summarizes issues in the UNIX-based computer market during 1991 and early 1992. UNIX Background What is UNIX and What is it Used For? UNIX is a combination of a computer operating system and utility programs. Written mainly in a technical computer programming language called "C," UNIX programs can be moved among different computers, thereby facilitating the work of software developers and end users. UNIX allows a single user to operate several computing jobs at the same time, which is known as multitasking. Since its commercial appearance in 1975, all major hardware vendors have introduced products that operate under UNIX. Versions of UNIX exist for all types of computers, including mainframe, mini and microcomputers, almost all technical workstations and most supercomputers. By 1988 there were more than 600,000 UNIX installations worldwide and by 1991, the list of UNIX commercial users included most Fortune 100 companies. Despite this level of success, UNIX had a relatively minor impact in commercial markets by 1991 and had yet to live up to its commercial promise. UNIX was still the operating system of the future, not the present. UNIX History The UNIX operating system was created in the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) Bell Labs in 1969 by Ken Thomson, Dennis Ritchie and their colleagues, who aimed to develop an operating system that would isolate computer hardware from application software. The first edition of the system was documented in a manual in 1971 and the sixth edition became the first commercially available version of UNIX, in 1975. AT&T at first viewed UNIX as an academic and research tool. Lacking major commercial goals for the system, UNIX was widely licensed for a nominal fee. AT&T also was inhibited from entering commercial computer markets because of agreements that it had with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning antitrust issues in its telecommunications business. Licensees paid for the right to use the UNIX "kernel" (the core operating system) and then developed enhancements to the program, such as new utilities, different algorithms, security modifications, real-time capabilities and symmetric multiprocessing.1 The first version of UNIX to gain favor in academic institutions and other research-oriented sites emerged from the University of California at Berkeley, which developed and distributed Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) UNIX. Contrary to AT&T's expectations, UNIX also became popular in commercial settings. The first entrant was Xenix, a version of UNIX designed to operate on 16-bit microcomputers that was co-developed by Microsoft and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) and introduced in late 1980. AT&T also introduced UNIX System III in 1980, while the first version of UNIX designed to operate on mainframe computers was released in early 1981. In 1984, AT&T introduced UNIX System V Release 2 (SVR2), marking its major entry into the commercial market as well as signaling its intent to promote System V as the product standard. In 1985, AT&T followed with System V Release 3 (SVR3). In addition, AT&T designed the System V Interface Definition (SVID) and published the System V Verification Suite (SVVS) for product testing, obliging developers to pass SVVS before they can begin shipping any derivative using the SVR3 license. AT&T could force licensees that did not comply with the testing procedures to withdraw their product from the market. Following relaxation of the FTC- imposed restrictions on its participation in the computer market, AT&T introduced a microcomputer designed to use UNIX about 1986, competing with IBM-compatible and Apple microcomputers that used the DOS and Apple operating systems. 2 Despite its lead, AT&T could not dominate the UNIX market. With the widely available UNIX kernel, many other hardware manufacturers and software specialists introduced UNIX variants that were not derived from System V and so were free of SVVS restrictions. By 1991, more than 250 versions of UNIX had been introduced for commercial or research use. Many factors contribute to UNIX's attraction. Companies can take advantage of open systems architecture, which is UNIX's ability to operate on different hardware platforms, thereby avoiding commitment to a single hardware vendor.2 Consequently, a company can choose hardware and software based more on price-performance ratios and less on the compatibility of current and future applications. In addition, UNIX can reduce the costs of personnel training and data information management by 50% or more. These costs constitute a major expense, sometimes exceeding hardware and software costs. Software developers can use UNIX to reduce development costs, because it potentially enables them to write one application for many systems rather than modify it for each hardware platform. Nonetheless, several serious obstacles confronted UNIX commercial acceptance in 1991. Tables 1 and two summarize the advantages and disadvantages of UNIX. Table 1 ■ Factors Contributing to UNIX Acceptance 1. Open Systems – UNIX runs on almost all vendors' computing platforms. 2. Portability – The same program runs on many different computers. 3. Functionality – UNIX supports multitasking, multi-user applications, networks and high level applications. All were once only available with minis and mainframes. 4. Government Acceptance – The U.S. government and the EC support UNIX. 5. RISC – RISC-based workstations, which generally use a version of UNIX, are becoming popular as their prices drop, offering a better price/performance ratio than other systems. 6. User Interface – Several user-friendly interfaces have been developed. 7. Applications – Many popular applications have been released for UNIX systems. In addition, many UNIX configurations accommodate the use of DOS. 8. OS/2 and Windows – UNIX major competitors are in their infancy. 3 Table 2 ■ Obstacles to UNIX Commercial Acceptance 1. Many Variants – Many existing variants are not totally compatible. 2. Applications – Despite growing availability, less software is available than for other operating systems. 3. Employee Resistance – Corporate personnel are not familiar with UNIX. 4. Installed Base – Billions of dollars invested in other systems. 5. Security – UNIX has acquired the reputation of being weak in the area of security. 6. Technical Limits – As a relatively new system, UNIX has technical problems to be overcome. UNIX Standards Issues Two related issues provided the chief obstacles to UNIX's success: lack of product standards and lack of software availability. The existence of many versions hindered UNIX acceptability in business applications. More than 30 variants of UNIX were available commercially in 1991, with versions offered by virtually every major hardware vendor and many software specialists. Unfortunately, the versions were not totally compatible. Software applications written for one UNIX variant could not operate on other UNIX systems without expensive and difficult modifications. Moreover, moving applications among different hardware platforms is often unsuccessful, even in the UNIX environment. The lack of a product standard produced the first major impediment to UNIX acceptance because end-users incurred major cost and problems in integrating their applications. The small (although growing) number of applications that operate on UNIX systems created the second severe impediment to full commercial adoption. In the computer industry, the most important measure of operating system success is the number and variety of application software programs that
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