Unix System Laboratories Inc’s Destiny desktop Unix programme has somewhat taken the limelight away from another launch taking place this week from Microport Inc, Scotts Valley, California, which is set to release its Runtime Plus desktop Unix implementation, a modularised source code version of AT&T Unix Labs’s System V.4.0. Like Unix Labs’s Desktop 4.1 – Unix Labs’s product name of the Destiny programme – Runtime Plus for Intel Corp iAPX-86 systems, needs a minimum of 4Mb memory, and supports Open Look, Motif, IXI Ltd’s X.desktop 3.0, Locus Computing Corp’s DOS-merge and X11/News – all of which are optional, so that the base system takes around 25Mb, if application space is all the user wants. At 40.94Mb, says Microport’s president, Spike Kasper, Runtime will be at most 1Mb larger than Desktop 4.1’s expected 40Mb capacity – which Unix Labs says is still scheduled for release in July or August. Unlike Unix Labs’ offering, Runtime Plus does not feature C2 security. All 4.0 applications will be compliant with the new release 4.1, says Kasper. Microport expects the $1,250 price tag on Runtime will compete aggressively against Desktop 4.1. As part of its effort to hit the low-end of the market, it is to bundle a single-user copy of JSB Computer Systems Ltd’s MultiView windowing system for character-based terminals with every copy of its System V.4 Version 4.
