Xenix was a version of the Unix operating system that Microsoft published from 1980 to 1987, after which the Santa Cruz Operation, SCO, took over its development until 1991. Microsoft licensed the Unix System V source code from AT&T in the late 1970s and ported it to run on 16 bit Intel x86 processors, building Xenix as a multiuser, multitasking alternative to its own MS-DOS. Microsoft scaled back its own development after AT&T began marketing Unix directly, but SCO continued to improve the system, and Xenix was probably the most widely installed version of Unix during the second half of the 1980s; SCO's 1987 port to the 386 processor made Xenix System V/386 the first 32 bit operating system available for the x86 architecture. The final release, System V Release 2.3.4, came out in 1991, after which SCO UNIX succeeded it. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Classification
LicenseProprietary (Closed Source) 2 FAQs
Why was Xenix not called Unix?
Microsoft could not license the Unix name.
Microsoft was not able to license the Unix name itself, so the company gave its Unix operating system an original name, Xenix.
Did Microsoft sell Xenix directly to customers?
No; it was licensed to OEMs.
No. Microsoft did not sell Xenix directly to end users but licensed it to hardware makers (OEMs). It received 500 dollars for each single-user copy sold by companies such as IBM, Intel, Tandy, Altos Computer, SCO and Siemens, which then ported it to their own proprietary computer architectures.
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Developed By
Also in Business Atlas: the developer of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Xenix
Final release
The last version of SCO Xenix/386 itself was System V R2.3.4, released in 1991.
Infobox, license
Proprietary
Infobox: released
August 25, 1980
Built On: Research Unix, History, first version
the first version of Xenix was "very close to the original Unix version 7 source" on the PDP-11
In Field: Operating Systems, Lead sentence
Xenix is a Unix operating system that was published by Microsoft from 1980 to 1987, and by the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) from 1987 to 1991. Xenix is based on the operating system UNIX System V, which Microsoft licensed from AT&T Corporation in the late 1970s.
View the Source2. Wikidata: Xenix
- Wikidata Q589680, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q589680 P275 (license)
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