uNETix is an early implementation of

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

for

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

systems. It was not a "true"

, but was written from scratch for the PC without using any code from System V.

Overview

uNETix only supported a single user. However, it maintained closer compatibility with standard versions of UNIX than early versions of

QNX QNX ( or ) is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems. The product was originally developed in the early 19 ...

. uNETix' multiple windows capability was possibly the first implementation of windowing in a

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating system. Up to 10 windows were supported, which could each run independent tasks and could have individual foreground and background colors set with a special color command. Published by Lantech Systems, Inc, uNETix had a list price in 1984 of US$130, but was discounted and advertised at US$99 ( USD today). The minimum RAM requirement was 256 kB, but a machine would only be able to support single-tasking; multitasking required 512 kB. It had an emulation environment for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

that could run DOS 1.1 programs in one window while UNIX programs ran in other windows. Its major weaknesses were slow speed and lack of

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

support. uNETix came with a full

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

programming environment, and a C compiler was optional. Lantech claimed that the C compiler was the first available for the x86 architecture.

References

{{Operating system Computing platforms Discontinued operating systems Unix variants Lightweight Unix-like systems

Overview

See also

References