HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Unix Expo was a
conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
and
trade show A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...
that focused on the Unix operating system, and software based on Unix, in the
information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
sector. It ran from 1984 through 1996 and was held in New York City during the autumn season. The show was owned and managed by the Blenheim Group.


Origins

The first Unix Expo was held in October 1984 and was split between the Sheraton Centre Hotel and the Marina Expo complex in New York and had the formal title of Unix Operating System Exposition & Conference. It was organized by the Unigroup users' group for Unix, and some seventy Unix-related vendors signed up to display at it.


The shows

AT&T Corporation AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...
, owner of
Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...
, the creator of Unix, was the company behind the early commercial push for Unix adoption; accordingly it had the anchor display position in early shows. By 1987, in its fourth year, the show had some 16,000 attendees, with commercial interest rising in Unix due to its portability and strengths in development tools and networking. Due to acquisitions of various promotions firms, the show was run under the names of several different companies, ending with the Blenheim Group. The show grew in significance; in 1985 it was where AT&T unveiled Xenix System V, and in 1989 it was the site of AT&T's unveiling of the much-talked-about System V Release 4 version of Unix. Similarly, it was a site where discussions to end the divisive
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 Both AT&T Corporation and University of California, Berkeley are important in the early history of Unix. Al ...
could take place. Numerous other product announcements and company alliances were also announced during a Unix Expo. In its peak years, the show was held within the
Javits Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James In ...
and had upwards of 35,000 attendees. Along with Uniforum in San Francisco in the spring, Unix Expo was considered one of the two big Unix-themed trade shows and conferences that one could attend during a year. The show featured keynote addresses by the likes of
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...
head
Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer a ...
,
O'Reilly Media O'Reilly Media, Inc. (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) is an American learning company established by Tim O'Reilly that provides technical and professional skills development courses via an online learning platform. O'Reilly also publishes b ...
founder
Tim O'Reilly Timothy O'Reilly (born 6 June 1954) is an Irish-American author and publisher, who is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates). He popularised the terms open source and Web 2.0. Education and early life Born in County Co ...
, the
Santa Cruz Operation The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (usually known as SCO, pronounced either as individual letters or as a word) was an American software company, based in Santa Cruz, California, that was best known for selling three Unix operating system variants ...
CEO
Alok Mohan Alok is an Indian given name of Sanskrit origin. People with the given name Alok *Alok (DJ) (born 1991), Brazilian DJ and music producer *Alok Bhargava (born 1954), Indian-American econometrician *Alok Chatterjee (1960/1961–2025), Indian theatre ...
, and
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
president Ed Zander. It also featured panel discussions, technology- and business-oriented breakout sessions, and floor space for exhibiting vendors such as the aforementioned companies as well as DEC, HP,
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
,
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 NetWare. Novell technolog ...
, and numerous others. Two well-known industry CEOs not normally associated with Unix gave keynotes at Unix Expo:
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
in 1991, when he was head of
NeXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...
(whose innovative
NeXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT, founded by Steve Jobs, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its ...
operating system was built on top of Unix) in between stints at
Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
, and
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
in 1996, when he was running
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
. The latter appearance was much anticipated, as Microsoft's
Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
server operating system product was the major rival of Unix and Gates was often seen as an industry villain. As industry chronicle ''
Computerworld ''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is a computer magazine published since 1967 aimed at information technology (IT) and Business computing, business technology professionals. Original a print magazine, ''Computerworld'' published its final pr ...
'' headlined a story to portray it: "Gates to step into pro-Unix lion's den." while '' Computer Reseller News'' said that Gates was taking "the Windows NT battle right into the belly of the beast at Unix Expo". In a large presentation area filled to capacity, Gates gave a message centered around the notion that Windows NT and Unix were not as far apart as one might think. But the rivalry was still manifest. During the keynote Gates oversaw a staffer running a demo of a beta version of the Microsoft
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...
browser running on the Unix-based
Sun Solaris Oracle Solaris is a proprietary Unix operating system offered by Oracle for SPARC and x86-64 based workstations and servers. Originally developed by Sun Microsystems as Solaris, it superseded the company's earlier SunOS in 1993 and became kno ...
operating system. And as ''SunWorld'' magazine reported, "to the delight of the crowd, it crashed the first time around."


End

As it happened, 1996 was to be the last Unix Expo. During the final two years of its run, vendor participation and attendee numbers had both declined. This was attributable to Unix having become a well-established technology that had found widespread acceptance and a level of maturity; as such, it was no longer the sort of leading-edge technology that tended to warrant a demand for dedicated trade shows and conferences. That role was beginning to be taken on by the Linux operating system, which had had some small exhibits within Unix Expo and now was attracting more industry interest as a leading-edge development. Accordingly, in 1997 Unix Expo ceased to be its own entity and was folded into a new larger and more general show called IT Forum '97 and run by Miller Freeman.


References

{{reflist


External links


Transcript of Bill Gates' October 9, 1996 keynote at Unix Expo
Computer conferences Conferences in the United States Unix Recurring events established in 1984 Recurring events disestablished in 1997 Annual events in New York City