> I had no idea there was a unix-like available at relatively reasonable cost before Linux. That is why I posted the link. Linux was not the first low-cost Un

> I had no idea there was a unix-like available at relatively reasonable cost before Linux. That is why I posted the link. Linux was not the first low-cost Unix for the PC. Very roughly, it went: * Unix only ran on proprietary kit. PCs were too small. * The 286 came along, and SCO took over Microsoft Xenix and offered it as a 286 OS -- expensive, and stuff we take for granted now, like networking, X11, and a compiler, were all separate expensive extras. * The 386 made Xenix a very credible usable OS, but it cost 10x as much as DOS or Windows. Commercial deployments in business, with no GUI, no networking, no compile, just statically-linked proprietary apps and dumb RS-232 terminals, mostly from Wyse. * As PCs got more powerful, other companies offered expensive PC Unixes too, and SCO officially licensed the AT&T kernel: SCO Xenix became SCO Unix. * Coherent came along with a very cheap and complete (but very limited) Unix-like OS. * Minix came along, even cheaper and you could get the source code. * It became possible to build and run BSD on PCs if you were a serious guru. * GNU considered the BSD kernel and decided against it, going for Mach and the HURD instead. (Oops.) * Linux came along and undercut Coherent, putting the MWC out of business. * NetBSD and FreeBSD became somewhat usable if you were highly capable. * Linux gradually became somewhat usable as a mainstream OS, with things like live CDs (Yggdrasil, Lasermoon Linux-FT) and installable modular distros with packaging (Red Hat Linux, Debian).