It looks as if it’s curtains for Quorum Software Systems Inc. The Mac-under-Unix software emulation company is said to have failed to find any bidders despite its attempts to auction the business off. Distributor UniDirect Inc is now selling and supporting the Quorum Equal end-user product that runs Microsoft Corp’s Word and Excel programs for the Macintosh. Expectations are that company engineers will take over the Latitude developers’ product and that Quorum will simply fold its tents in a few weeks. Quorum blames Apple Computer Inc and the legal difficulties the company created, and the consequent scare it put into venture capitalists, for its imminent demise. Quorum’s nearest competitor, the Liken product, is not much better off. Its developer Xcelerated Systems Inc was taken over by Andataco Inc of San Diego and Liken is now bundled and used to help sell disk drives at higher prices. Meanwhile, on the Windows front, Locus Computing Corp, like Insignia Solutions Ltd and MainSoft Corp before it, has signed up with Microsoft to license Windows 3.1 source code for its Windows-under-Unix on iAPX86 Merge product, which is now at revision 3.2 and supports Windows programs requiring enhanced mode. The new 3.2 also provides virtual iAPX-86 performance, Locus claims, and unlike SoftWindows or Wabi, enables direct execution of non-privileged instructions, rather than emulating them. The race is now on among the Windows-on-Unix gang – Insignia, Locus, Bristol Software Inc and MainSoft Inc to support Chicago. Locus believes that its current enhanced mode support gives it an edge. Its package supporting Chicago will naturally be designated 4.0, after Chicago’s official name, and should be able to handle Windows NT and distributed Object Linking & Embedding software. Merge 3.2 will be sold with Santa Cruz Operation Inc Open Desktop, UnixWare and not so surprisingly, Solaris x.86.
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