future of UNIX and microport

[Steve Rudek]

In article <661 at micropen>, dave at micropen (David F. Carlson) writes:
> This is in reference to a recent flame from John Sully's account.  (John,
> if you lend out your account again make sure the "flamer" refrains from
> scatological material that devalues this news group.  Such postings do none
> of us any good!)
It wasn't John Sully (John can write) and it wasn't even from Microport
(weren't you skeptical enough to take a look at the expanded header?).

> to do the job.  Source code to "simple" Microport programs should have always
> been available for customization.  Source code for Microport device drivers
> should have been easily available for modification since Microport obviously
> didn't have the man-power to do it themselves.  This would encourage developers
I don't really expect this to come to pass, but it would be nice if at least
NOW microport would release this source.  IT WOULD ALSO BE SMART.

If anyone from Microport is reading this, consider: if the company folds that
source isn't going to do *anyone* any good -- and a lot of customers are going
to be abandoned with *still* broken products (the 2.4 driver is still
causing double panics on at least some machines) and no hope of ever
getting a stable UNIX.

On the other hand, if the company really does have a fighting chance of
staying alive the odds would be considerably improved by releasing the code
because (1) it would generate customer good will and good will means 
repeat business and recommendations  (2) it would give both current
and potential new users hope that the the really awful bugs might actually
be fixed someday.

I don't know what is left of Microport -- does *anyone* know of a way to get
this message to the right people?  I saw the earlier posting from Microport
Admin re: DOS Merge 2.0 for $60.  I would be *delighted* to buy the product
if my serial ports weren't so flaky.   As things stand, I never know when
this system (running the latest release -- V/AT 2.4) will crash; given
that kind of uncertainty, wouldn't it be silly for me to push my luck by
also trying to run a concurrent DOS process?
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P.S.> I don't suppose Microport is still running a BBS?