Coherent version 3 for Intel-based PCs required at least a 286, Coherent version 4 for Intel-based PCs required at least a 386. Ĭoherent was able to run on most Intel-based PCs with Intel 8088, 286, 386, and 486 processors. A review in the AUUG's newsletter was more positive, favorably comparing Coherent to MKS Toolkit, Minix and Xenix, and suggesting it might fill a niche as a low-end training platform. PC Magazine called Coherent 3.0 a "time capsule" that captured the state of Unix in the late 1970s, without support for mice, LANs or SCSI disks, good for learning basic Unix programming but not for business automation. Early 1990s reviews of Coherent pointed out that the system was much smaller than other contemporary Unix offerings, as well as less expensive at US$99.95, but lacking in functionality and software support. In 1985 it criticized the difficulty of installation, but stated that "as a UNIX clone, Coherent is amazingly complete. īYTE in 1984 called Coherent a "highly compatible UNIX Version 7 lookalike". At this point, Coherent 2.3 offered roughly the functionality of Version 7 Unix on PC hardware, including the nroff formatter but not the BSD extensions offered by competing Unix/clone vendors compared to its competitors, it was a small system distributed on only seven double-sided floppy disks, costing only US$500 for a license. Initially sold to OEMs, starting 1983 it was available on the consumer market from MWC directly. Versions Ĭoherent was originally written for the PDP-11 range of minicomputers in 1980, then ported to various early 1980s microcomputer systems including IBM PC compatibles and machines based on the Zilog Z8000 and Motorola 68000. Significant contributions were also made by people such as Nigel Bree (from Auckland, New Zealand), the later author of Ghost. Much of the operating system was written by alumni from the University of Waterloo: Tom Duff, Dave Conroy, Randall Howard, Johann George, and Trevor John Thompson. If it came to it, I could never honestly testify that what they generated was irreproducible from the manual. It might have been that some parts were written with source nearby, but at least the effort had been made to rewrite. looking at various corners I couldn't find anything that was copied. The delegation included Dennis Ritchie, who concluded that "it was very hard to believe that Coherent and its basic applications were not created without considerable study of the OS code and details of its applications." However, he also stated that: In the early years of its existence, MWC received a visit from an AT&T delegation looking to determine whether MWC was infringing on AT&T Unix property. Development Ĭoherent was not Unix the Mark Williams Company had no rights to either the Unix trademark or the AT&T/ Bell Labs source code. Historically, the operating system was a proprietary product, but it became open source in 2015, released under the BSD-3-Clause license. PDP-11, x86 ( 8088, 286, 386, 486), Motorola 68000, Zilog Z8000Ĭoherent system startup and login prompt Viewing the root directory and system informationĬoherent is a clone of the Unix operating system for IBM PC compatibles and other microcomputers, developed and sold by the now-defunct Mark Williams Company (MWC).
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