Univel, Inc. was a joint venture of
Novell
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare.
Under the lead ...
and
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
's
Unix System Laboratories
Unix System Laboratories (USL), sometimes written UNIX System Laboratories to follow relevant trademark guidelines of the time, was an American software laboratory and product development company that existed from 1989 through 1993. At first wh ...
(USL) that was formed in December 1991 to develop and market the
Destiny
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
desktop
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 ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
,
which was released in 1992 as
UnixWare 1.0. Univel existed only briefly in the period between AT&T initially divesting parts of USL in 1991, and its eventual outright purchase by Novell, which completed in June 1993,
thereby acquiring rights to the Unix operating system. Novell merged USL and Univel into their new
Unix Systems Group
Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-System platform, platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. ...
(USG).
Beginning
Novell was the leader in network operating system software, with its product
NetWare
NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol.
The original NetWare product in 19 ...
, while Unix System Laboratories was an
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
majority-owned entity responsible for the development and maintenance of one of the main branches of the
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 ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...
, the
UNIX System V Release 4
Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...
source code product. The idea to combine forces originated during 1991, with USL chief
Roel Pieper
Roland "Roel" Pieper (born 1956, Vlaardingen, Netherlands) is a Dutch IT-entrepreneur.
Early life and education
Pieper was born (April 13, 1956) in Vlaardingen, son of an engineer at a car manufacturer. His father died when Pieper was 20, and on ...
believing that the advent of
32-bit applications and
workgroup computing gave Unix its best chance yet to gain widespread acceptance.
Pieper brought the idea to Novell chief
Ray Noorda
Raymond John "Ray" Noorda (19 June 1924 – 9 October 2006) was a United States of America, U.S. computer businessman. He was chief executive officer, CEO of Novell between 1982 and 1994. He also served as chairman of Novell until he was rep ...
, as Novell's executives were already looking for a way to gain entry into
enterprise computing
Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, ...
.
In particular, Novell executive vice president
Kanwal Rekhi
Kanwal Singh Rekhi (born August 29, 1945) ( Punjabi : ਕੰਵਲ ਰੇਖੀ) is an Indian-American businessperson. He was the first Indian-American founder and CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
C ...
played a significant role in the formation and launching of Univel.
Initial word that Novell and USL were planning a joint venture came in October 1991 with a memorandum of understanding between the two.
Univel was then formed in December 1991,
with public announcement of the formation being made on December 12, 1991.
Novell had a 55 percent share of the new entity.
The president of Univel was Joel Applebaum, who had previously been a vice president at Unix System Laboratories.
Univel had some $30 million in initial financing.
The headquarters for Univel was in Novell's offices in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
,
where much of the sales and marketing effort also took place.
The main engineering office was in
Sandy, Utah
Sandy is a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, located in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The population of Sandy was 87,461 at the 2010 census, making it the sixth-largest city in Utah. The population is currently estimated ...
, where development work for the NetWare for Unix client was done among other components (there were also Univel liaison staff located at Novell's main
Provo offices).
Finally, there was also a small group in USL's offices in
Summit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...
assigned to the Univel effort, whose roles included
ISV support engineering.
For Unix System Laboratories, Univel was its first foray into the binary, shrink-wrapped software product market.
While the initiative initially focused on
Intel x86
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...
-based systems,
there were also ideas within Univel to later support the
Sun SPARC and
MIPS architectures, and possibly the in-the-works
Advanced RISC Computing
Advanced RISC Computing (ARC) is a specification promulgated by a defunct consortium of computer manufacturers (the Advanced Computing Environment project), setting forth a standard MIPS RISC-based computer hardware and firmware environment. ...
architecture as well.
UnixWare
Univel had only one product, the UnixWare operating system
(UnixWare was a trademark of Univel).
The aim was to make Unix successful in a
desktop computer
A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply ...
environment.
As such, the premise of UnixWare for personal use was that it would target the higher end of the PC range with a GUI-based, shrink-wrapped Unix that was oriented towards novice users that would easily drop into a NetWare-based local area network.
In terms of sales motion, the product could then take advantage of Novell's large channel of 12,000 resellers and distributors.
Predictions that Unix could become successful on the desktop had already started being made by the late 1980s,
and would become a recurring theme of Unix technology.
Rekhi said in early 1992 said that they were aiming to produce a "Unix for the masses", in particular "a desktop strain of Unix that isn't so damned hard to use," with matching the friendliness of an
Apple Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
being an ideal goal.
Others were skeptical of the goal; one executive at a Utah-based consulting company said of Univel, "They're dreaming on the client", with simply too much catching up to do to ever effectively challenge
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
.
Part of the challenge of the "Destiny" project was reducing
System V Unix
Unix System V (pronounced: "System Five") is one of the first commercial versions of the Unix operating system. It was originally developed by AT&T and first released in 1983. Four major versions of System V were released, numbered 1, 2, 3, an ...
to a profile that would work on an Intel-based PC.
The USL
SVR4.2 technology is used in this project.
The
MoOLIT
MoOLIT (Motif OPEN LOOK Intrinsics Toolkit) is a graphical user interface library and application programming interface (API) created by Unix System Laboratories in an attempt to create a bridge between the two competing look-and-feels for Unix wo ...
toolkit is used for the
windowing system
In computing, a windowing system (or window system) is software that manages separately different parts of display screens. It is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) which implements the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) paradigm for ...
, allowing the user to choose between an
OPEN LOOK
OPEN LOOK (sometimes referred to as Open Look) is a graphical user interface (GUI) specification for UNIX workstations. It was originally defined in the late 1980s by Sun Microsystems and AT&T Corporation.
History
OPEN LOOK was created at a ...
or
MOTIF-like look and feel at runtime.
In order to make the system more robust on commodity desktop hardware, the
Veritas
Veritas is the name given to the Roman virtue of Honesty, truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should possess. The Greek goddess of truth is Aletheia (Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: ). The German phi ...
VXFS
The VERITAS File System (or VxFS; called JFS and OnlineJFS in HP-UX) is an extent-based file system. It was originally developed by VERITAS Software. Through an OEM agreement, VxFS is used as the primary filesystem of the HP-UX operating syste ...
journaling file system
A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a "journal", which is usually a circular log. In the even ...
is used in place of the
UFS file system used previously.
As part of sizing, Unix commands such as
grep
grep is a command-line utility for searching plain-text data sets for lines that match a regular expression. Its name comes from the ed command ''g/re/p'' (''globally search for a regular expression and print matching lines''), which has the sam ...
and
awk
AWK (''awk'') is a domain-specific language designed for text processing and typically used as a data extraction and reporting tool. Like sed and grep, it is a filter, and is a standard feature of most Unix-like operating systems.
The AWK langu ...
that were viewed as unnecessary for end users are eliminated; the number of supported fonts is reduced; and developer tools are unbundled.
Of prime importance was that a system running UnixWare could be easily incorporated into a NetWare-based local area network.
An early access release of UnixWare for software developers was made in June 1992;
Univel secured pledges from some seventy independent vendors to develop their products to run on UnixWare.
The GA release of UnixWare itself came in December 1992.
UnixWare came in two flavors, the Personal Edition and the Application Server.
In addition, a Software Development Kit was a separately priced product.
A key distinction between the two flavors was that the Personal Edition comes with only NetWare's
IPX/SPX
IPX/SPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. IPX and SPX are networking protocols used initially on networks using the (since discontinued) Novell NetWare operating systems. They also became widely used on netwo ...
networking stack, whereas the Application Server comes with
TCP/IP
The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...
as well; the absence of TCP/IP in the desktop release, unless ordered as an add-on, served to annoy many Unix proponents.
The Personal Edition also comes with
DOS Merge 3.0 and
DR DOS 6.0 to try to provide compatibility with Microsoft-based applications;
this was forced, as other than
WordPerfect and
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...
, none of the major personal computer applications had native Unix ports available for UnixWare.
Industry trade press reviews of UnixWare were generally favorable.
''
UNIX Review
''UNIX Review'' was an American magazine covering technical aspects of the UNIX operating system and C programming. Recognized for its in-depth technical analysis, the journal also reported on industry confabs and included some lighter fare.
Histo ...
'' called it "an attractive product" with "a fair chance of capturing a portion of the desktop market", although it said the NetWare and DOS support needed to be improved.
''
InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
'' praised the "multilayered architecture that neatly supports multiple graphical user interfaces, several Unix file systems, and NetWare interoperability."
Sales were another matter. ''InfoWorld'' said that a significant market share for a desktop competitor would be in the millions of copies purchased.
But in its first six weeks on the market, UnixWare only sold 13,000 copies.
In April 1993, Univel announced a lowering of its initial pricing scheme.
But that did not help; by August 1993, total sales were still less than 25,000, a number that definitely did not meet Univel's expectations.
End
On December 21, 1992, it was announced that Novell would acquire Unix System Laboratories, and all of its Unix assets, including all copyrights, trademarks, and licensing contracts.
The Novell acquisition closed in June 1993; at that point, Univel became a fully owned subsidiary of Novell.
By one industry account, Univel ceased to exist in July 1993, when both it and Unix Systems Laboratories became that Novell's Unix Systems Group.
However, another industry account portrayed Novell briefers as saying in August 1993 that Univel was the entity actively working on the follow-on
UnixWare 1.1 release.
In any case, changes of management were in the offing;
both Univel head Joel Applebaum, and Unix Systems Laboratories head Roel Pieper, soon departed Novell.
Industry news releases were still referring to UnixWare as a product of Univel into 1994,
but the name subsequently fell into disuse.
Speaking in retrospect, one unnamed Novell executive said in August 1994, "Univel was a nightmare. It was the bastard child of Novell and USL. Neither parent loved it."
The remark was said in the context of maintaining that under Novell's more focused guidance, the next major release of the Univel's product,
UnixWare 2, would be better and more successful, and that UnixWare would focus on server-side capabilities.
On the other hand, ''
InfoWorld
''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its siste ...
'' had thought that "For Novell, UnixWare is a low-risk, high-return gamble."
Efforts by other players to make 'Unix on the desktop' a success did not work either.
Years later they would be followed by equally unsuccessful efforts toward
'Linux on the desktop'. Univel is one episode of a complex saga of Unix and Linux history, including
Unix wars
The Unix wars were struggles between vendors to set a standard for the Unix operating system in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Origins
Although AT&T Corporation created Unix, by the 1980s, the University of California, Berkeley Computer Syste ...
, competing consortia, competing UI frameworks, competing desktop representations,
Linux desktop wars, fragmentation, forks, forks on top of previous forks, and more.
References
{{Novell
1991 establishments in California
1993 disestablishments in California
American companies established in 1991
American companies disestablished in 1993
AT&T subsidiaries
Computer companies established in 1991
Computer companies disestablished in 1993
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Novell
Unix history