Waiting for the promised Unix implementations on Atari Corp and Commodore International Ltd machines is like waiting for Godot both companies have been promising it for what seems like decades, but always at the last minute it fails to appear could the explanation be that Jack Tramiel, who ran Commodore for many years and no doubt left his imprint on the company before he moved on, is now the power behind Atari? Atari’s last assurance that Unix would indeed appear was back in June when it said that Atari’s ATX implementation of Unix V.3.2 would be out in September. But at the Atari Fair in Dusseldorf last week the new 32MHz 68030 Atari TT – first launched at the same show last year in a 16MHz version – there was still no sign of Unix. Atari now appears to be holding off until its implementation of Unix System V.4 (from Unisoft Ltd) is completed, and in the meantime is offering only its proprietary TOS operating system, albeit a new release, 3.01. According to the Guardian, Atari will eventually opt for the OSF/Motif user interface along with the WISh2 user interface and the XFaceMaker2 development system from Non Standard Logics SA of Paris, along with the GNU C compiler from the Free Software Foundation. Pricing undercuts the UKP2,500 entry price of the rival Commodore Amiga A3000 by about UKP500, with a 2Mb colour system with 40Mb hard disk priced at UKP1,990. Commodore is also holding out for System V.4 for the A3000 Amiga range, but despite its early demonstration of V.4 on a Commodore machine last November, observers at the UK launch back in April were left with the impression that it would not be appearing for some time yet: sounds like the ill-fated Commodore Z-Machine all over again – the Z-Machine was a sexy Z8000-based desktop machine that regularly appeared behind curtains and under wraps at exhibitions in 1983, 1984 and 1985, but disappeared for good almost as soon as it was finally launched as a product.
