ULTRIX futures?

[gwyn at BRL.ARPA]

Wayne Hathaway's question can be generalized:

What lies in the future for vendors who have been
providing Berkeley-based kernels?  Do they track
4.nBSD as it continues to diverge from AT&T's
UNIX product, do they convert to follow AT&T, or
do they offer a choice of systems?  After all,
there is a limit to how much System V compatibility
you can squeeze out of a Berkeley kernel, and this
limit unfortunately excludes several really useful
System V features.

It appears that the major market demand will be for
AT&T-compatible systems.  This does apply a lot of
pressure to the Berkeley system vendors.  Of course,
if Berkeley would conform to the SVID, this would
not be such a significant issue, but recently
reported quotes make this appear unlikely.  Too bad.
(Actually, if BSD usage dwindled to just research-
oriented sites, that would probably be a Good Thing
for everyone concerned, in the long run.)