XENIX
The origin of XENIX
XENIX is Microsoft's version of the UNIX operating system which they made in 1980, after UNIX was made available outside Bell Labs. Since, AT&T did not permit Microsoft to use the name UNIX for its version of the operating system, Microsoft changed the name slightly and called it XENIX.
XENIX, like UNIX, was a portable operating system and was made to run on the DEC PDP-11, the Intel 8086, Zilog Z8000 and the Motorola M68000. Since XENIX was based on UNIX, Microsoft was able to make UNIX software compatible on the XENIX OS as well. Also historically, changes in the development of UNIX had an indirect impact on the rise and fall of XENIX.
Microsoft and SCO
The Santa Cruz Operation, Incorporated (SCO) was founded in 1979 as a
UNIX porting company. In the early 1980's, SCO and Microsoft worked
together to make produce XENIX and it was a commercial success due to
its multi-user capabilities. During this time, competition between UNIX-like
operating systems was beginning to rise, resulting in different versions
of XENIX being released.
In 1983, SCO made XENIX based on the UNIX System III
and it also had some additional enhancements from other UNIX-like
operating systems such as BSD. Two years later, SCO produced the XENIX 286,
which was adapted for the Intel 286 based on the UNIX System V.
During this time, AT&T and Bell Labs split and sold UNIX. This had a direct impact on XENIX, as Microsoft thought that the competition was getting too high in this market and sold XENIX to SCO. Thus in 1987, SCO produced the SCO XENIX 386, which supported Intel 386 processors and two years later, in 1989, the SCO UNIX was produced based on System. However, by 1991, many other UNIX-like operating systems were being developed (such as Linux) and SCO produced its last SCO XENIX during that year.