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in 1984 called
Coherent a "highly compatible UNIX Version 7 lookalike". In 1985 it criticized the difficulty of installation, but stated that "as a UNIX clone, Coherent is amazingly complete ... it should be easy to port programs ... the price of $ 495 is a bargain". Early 1990s reviews of Coherent
355:
looking at various corners I couldn't find anything that was copied. It might have been that some parts were written with source nearby, but at least the effort had been made to rewrite. If it came to it, I could never honestly testify that what they generated was irreproducible from the
351:, 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:
347:. 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. The delegation included
438:
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.
496:. Coherent version 3 for Intel-based PCs required at least a 286, Coherent version 4 for Intel-based PCs required at least a 386. Like a true Unix, Coherent was able to
46:
368:, Dave Conroy, Randall Howard, Johann George, and Trevor John Thompson. Significant contributions were also made by people such as Nigel Bree (from
772:
791:
408:, starting 1983 it was available on the consumer market from MWC directly. At this point, Coherent 2.3 offered roughly the functionality of
33:
1618:
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extensions offered by competing Unix/clone vendors; compared to its competitors, it was a small system distributed on only seven
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Later versions of
Coherent (version 4 and higher) supported features common in modern Unix-like systems, including a version of
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called
Coherent 3.0 a "time capsule" that captured the state of Unix in the late 1970s, without support for
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604:) announced a port of Coherent to IBM mainframes, in the form of a Unix compatibility subsystem for IBM's
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operating systems, known as
Programmer Work Station/VSE-Advanced Functions, or PWS/VSE-AF for short.
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disks, good for learning basic Unix programming but not for business automation. A review in the
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316:(MWC). Historically, the operating system was a proprietary product, but it became
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Virtualbox, Qemu and PCem VM's with
Coherent 3.x, 4.0, 4.2.x, DDK, X11, sources...
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Coherent was not Unix; the Mark
Williams Company had no rights to either the Unix
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924:, vol. 27, no. 37, IDG Enterprise, p. 4, 12 September 1983,
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range of minicomputers in 1980, then ported to various early 1980s
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504:. From version 4, released 1992, Coherent also had support for
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On
January 3, 2015, Coherent sources were released under the
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Much of the operating system was written by alumni from the
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543:. The final releases of Coherent also fully supported the
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binary standard, which allowed binary compatibility with
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593:port of Coherent was also used by the canceled
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1002:
918:"Nixdorf unwraps Unix-compatible T/S for IBM"
864:Australian UNIX Systems User Group Newsletter
664:
1009:
995:
860:"Good Things Still Come in Small Packages"
623:The Mark Williams Company closed in 1995.
819:
751:
632:
384:Coherent was originally written for the
312:, developed and sold by the now-defunct
281:
278:Coherent system startup and login prompt
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49:of all important aspects of the article.
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813:
770:
747:
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967:Installation Media for Coherent 4.2.10
857:
838:
45:Please consider expanding the lead to
990:
820:Christian, Kaare (11 December 1990).
1576:
810:
742:
18:
539:, and a modified version of Taylor
13:
841:"PC Users Get Alternative to Unix"
773:"The Future of Unix on the IBM PC"
578:. The last 386 versions supported
14:
1640:
950:
839:Dryden, Patrick (23 April 1990).
701:Dennis Ritchie (April 10, 1998).
473:Coherent was able to run on most
1575:
1564:
1563:
84:
75:
23:
1562:indicate discontinued systems.
935:
910:
892:
874:
822:"Coherent: Unix power for $ 99"
790:Rochkind, Marc J. (Fall 1985).
771:Phraner, Ralph A. (Fall 1984).
752:Hannotte, Dean (12 June 1984).
683:from the original on 2015-01-06
677:"Mark Williams Company Sources"
600:In 1983, NCSC (a subsidiary of
37:may be too short to adequately
1619:Software using the BSD license
1604:Discontinued operating systems
851:
832:
738:. Mark Williams Company. 1994.
724:
694:
412:on PC hardware, including the
327:
47:provide an accessible overview
1:
1614:Lightweight Unix-like systems
1609:Formerly proprietary software
977:Mark Williams Company Sources
657:
320:in 2015, released under the
7:
1547:Windows Subsystem for Linux
792:"Pick, Coherent, and THEOS"
640:
379:
163:; 30 years ago
143:; 44 years ago
16:Unix operating system clone
10:
1645:
906:. 6 April 1984. p. 9.
888:. 8 June 1992. p. 51.
396:and machines based on the
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1541:Windows Services for UNIX
1496:Microsoft POSIX subsystem
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90:Coherent 4.2.10 installer
83:
74:
962:Coherent history archive
554:applications, including
972:Coherent image for qemu
566:applications including
372:), the later author of
711:alt.folklore.computers
637:
416:formatter but not the
362:University of Waterloo
358:
291:
290:and system information
279:
1629:X86 operating systems
1535:UserLAnd Technologies
858:Dikian, Jack (1991).
636:
370:Auckland, New Zealand
353:
314:Mark Williams Company
285:
277:
268:Original: Proprietary
102:Mark Williams Company
1530:UNIX System Services
1029:compatibility layers
942:Closing Announcement
900:"From the news desk"
754:"A Good Buy on UNIX"
404:. Initially sold to
1257:Other distributions
760:. pp. 250–254.
431:500 for a license.
71:
638:
394:IBM PC compatibles
392:systems including
306:IBM PC compatibles
297:is a clone of the
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280:
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1025:operating systems
779:. pp. 59–64.
513:windowing systems
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477:-based PCs with
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66:Operating system
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736:COHERENT manual
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427:, costing only
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138:Initial release
129:Closed source;
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32:This article's
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951:External links
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782:
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723:
703:"Re: Coherent"
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662:
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659:
656:
655:
654:
649:
642:
639:
612:and Nixdorf's
580:virtual memory
572:Microsoft Word
562:, and several
502:multiple users
410:Version 7 Unix
402:Motorola 68000
381:
378:
349:Dennis Ritchie
329:
326:
310:microcomputers
288:root directory
270:
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242:user interface
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216:Motorola 68000
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157:Latest release
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41:the key points
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1624:Unix variants
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1447:Compatibility
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1415:Research Unix
1412:
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1120:DragonFly BSD
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886:Computerworld
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847:. p. 40.
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828:. p. 50.
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798:. p. 231
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595:Commodore 900
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584:demand paging
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390:microcomputer
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161:4.2.14 / 1994
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118:Working state
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55:February 2023
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1040:Architecture
937:
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844:
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825:
800:. Retrieved
795:
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766:
757:
735:
726:
696:
685:. Retrieved
628:BSD-3-Clause
625:
622:
599:
588:
527:file systems
522:, access to
517:
500:and support
472:
439:
434:
433:
425:floppy disks
422:double-sided
383:
359:
354:
331:
322:BSD-3-Clause
294:
293:
286:Viewing the
265:BSD-3-Clause
247:Command-line
177:Available in
131:open sourced
126:Source model
121:Discontinued
52:
36:
34:lead section
1503:MKS Toolkit
1314:OpenSolaris
870:(1): 21–22.
826:PC Magazine
591:Zilog Z8000
560:Lotus 1-2-3
556:WordPerfect
460:MKS Toolkit
440:PC Magazine
398:Zilog Z8000
345:source code
328:Development
318:open source
220:Zilog Z8000
1598:Categories
1524:PWS/VSE-AF
1421:SerenityOS
1328:Tru64 UNIX
1303:OpenServer
1055:Philosophy
1045:Filesystem
882:"In brief"
687:2021-06-18
658:References
582:, but not
568:QuickBASIC
531:optimizing
520:MicroEMACS
494:processors
479:Intel 8088
308:and other
233:Monolithic
1359:Domain/OS
1075:Operating
1022:Unix-like
930:0010-4841
904:InfoWorld
845:InfoWorld
732:"Preface"
707:Newsgroup
630:license.
576:MultiPlan
564:Microsoft
498:multitask
342:Bell Labs
334:trademark
324:license.
251:KornShell
188:Platforms
112:Unix-like
108:OS family
97:Developer
39:summarize
1570:Category
1517:P.I.P.S.
1353:Coherent
1335:UnixWare
1269:System V
1222:ChromeOS
1177:NeXTSTEP
1162:bridgeOS
1060:Security
802:19 March
681:Archived
641:See also
618:Edos/VSE
597:system.
552:SCO Unix
537:compiler
380:Versions
366:Tom Duff
338:AT&T
295:Coherent
70:Coherent
1582:Commons
1560:Italics
1489:MachTen
1482:Interix
1462:Darling
1433:more...
1320:Illumos
1308:Solaris
1242:Red Hat
1212:Android
1157:watchOS
1142:audioOS
1115:OpenBSD
1105:FreeBSD
1077:systems
1050:History
715:Usenet:
709::
614:Edos/VS
610:DOS/VSE
602:Nixdorf
356:manual.
336:or the
259:License
240:Default
182:English
166: (
146: (
133:in 2015
1468:Eunice
1457:Cygwin
1449:layers
1376:LynxOS
1252:Ubuntu
1237:Gentoo
1232:Fedora
1227:Debian
1191:Ultrix
1147:iPadOS
1127:Darwin
1110:NetBSD
1099:386BSD
928:
758:PC Mag
717:
606:DOS/VS
574:, and
489:, and
386:PDP-11
263:2015:
227:Kernel
192:PDP-11
1427:Xenix
1394:OSF/1
1381:Minix
1345:Other
1291:HP-UX
1203:Linux
1184:SunOS
1170:DYNIX
1132:macOS
1065:Shell
652:Venix
647:PC/IX
529:, an
524:FAT16
475:Intel
468:Xenix
464:Minix
414:nroff
374:Ghost
1510:PASE
1369:Hurd
1297:IRIX
1280:A/UX
1247:SUSE
1217:Arch
1152:tvOS
1027:and
1020:and
1018:Unix
926:ISSN
804:2016
796:BYTE
777:BYTE
616:and
608:and
548:COFF
545:iBCS
541:UUCP
508:and
466:and
456:AUUG
452:SCSI
448:LANs
444:mice
435:BYTE
429:US$
406:OEMs
400:and
304:for
299:Unix
229:type
200:8088
168:1994
148:1980
141:1980
1475:GNV
1400:QNX
1387:MOS
1364:GNU
1286:AIX
1137:iOS
1088:BSD
510:MGR
506:X11
491:486
487:386
483:286
450:or
418:BSD
214:),
212:486
208:386
204:286
196:x86
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