Sunsoft Inc has admitted that a fully binary shrink-wrapped version of Solaris 2.0 on Intel Corp iAPX-86 won’t be out until the first quarter of 1993. It originally promised developers kits by the middle of this year and end-user versions by year-end – and attributes the delay to a number of factors. The acquisition of much of Interactive Systems Corp put back its plans because of the sheer administrative problems of incorporating Interactive and its technology into Sunsoft. After the takeover was complete, Sunsoft then imported Interactive engineers to help with the Solaris development. However, it has also unexpectedly had to rewrite code for the vast numbers of device drivers and peripherals supported in the Intel iAPX-86 family of microprocessors. Calling this effort a challenge, Sunsoft claims the trouble it ran into was deciding which device drivers and peripherals to support, Intel has done its best to standardise on device drivers and peripherals, but the dilemma lies in which ones to choose. Sunsoft admits that it has to do a lot more work modifying Solaris 2.0 for Intel than it expected. Hungry would-be OEM customers – such as Dell Computer Corp, CompuAdd Corp, AST Research Inc and Toshiba Corp – can expect first developers kits in October, Sunsoft claims. However, the feeling among these slightly disillusioned vendors is that Sun has damaged itself by making promises it couldn’t keep. But Sunsoft is not alone in its problems: Next Computer Inc has had to delay the Intel version of its NextStep environment for pretty much the same reason. It now says it will ship it in the fourth quarter of 1992 or possibly early 1993: a spokeswoman says that beta testing will begin during October or November. NeXT is likely to announce the release of NeXTStep 3.0 in early September and Microbytes says that it could be earlier than that; a survey of NeXT developers indicates that the delay of NeXTStep 486 will not be too troublesome provided NeXT does not slip much further than early January and so long as it doesn’t trail the release of Solaris 2.0, which will have Windows and MS-DOS emulation.
