SunSoft Inc this week unveils its back-to-the-future character user interface-based implementation of Solaris x86 2.4 in Base Server and Network Server configurations. Although these are hardly names that will light up the industry, SunSoft hopes they will light a bonfire under Santa Cruz Operation Inc. The company is not normally so coy, but it was not until we got it warmed up that SunSoft revealed its intended quarry, admitting an intent to bleed a market that, according to International Data Corp, grew 16% last year and provided a significant portion of Santa Cruz’s 1994 sales of $184m. Coveting what it describes as the multi-user business market, Sun says Base and Network Server are intended for use by organisations running text-based applications, including companies with replicated sites or branch office locations such as banks, restaurant chains or retail operations. Although at this time the code will run only some 2,000-odd applications, out of a claimed 10,000 applications now under on Solaris (6,000 under Solaris 2), including the 500 written natively for Solaris x86, SunSoft’s big stick is the ability to run all normal Santa Cruz and SunSoft Interactive Unix applications. Until now, Solaris users with character applications have had to strip out Solaris’s graphics or use Interactive Unix. SunSoft says this does not spell the end of the line for Interactive customers who can move when ready, but it is the company’s first real stab at bringing Interactive users and their applications to Solaris. Its charts show Interactive 4.1.1, 4.1.2 and 4.1.3 releases stepping out alongside Solaris 2.4, 2.next and 2.next+1. Sparc versions of the character stuff are due in the summer. With Base and Network Server, SunSoft is entering what is predominantly a value added reseller-driven channel, and although it will not say who it has signed, Access Graphics Inc, Merisel Inc and Ingram Micro Inc are obvious routes to market. Santa Cruz Operation dismissed the venture, arguing that SunSoft’s lack of experience in this type of channel will be quickly exposed by a lack of customers. Solaris 2.4 Base Server is priced from $500 for two users and $1,000, for an unlimited licence. The 2.4 Network Server, including Network File System server, ONC+ server and TCP/IP, goes from $700 to $1,200 for unlimited users on up to two processors. Both include a character user interface with pull-down menus and require 8Mb RAM and 100Mb disk. International Data Corp puts worldwide multi-user Unix shipments at 200,000 for Santa Cruz, 50,000 each for Interactive and AIX, 25,000 for HP-UX, slightly less for AT&T System V.4 and Solaris and around 10,000 each for UnixWare and Motorola Inc Unix, with other vendors accounting for some 100,000 others.
