Between the years 1987 and 1995, Apple Computers, Inc. developed a distribution of System V Unix for the Motorola 680x0-based Macintosh. Much of the initial porting work was performed by UniSoft Corporation, with the project being gradually handed over to Apple Engineers. (UniSoft ported several versions of Unix to Motorola 680x0-based platforms, including the early Sun workstations.)

Apple's Unix (A/UX) was based on AT&T System V Release 2.2, as the industry had not yet "standardized" on SVR4. However, later versions of the operating system included features from SVR3, and SVR4, as well as BSD Unix 4.2 and 4.3 - TCP/IP networking, streams, Fast File System, job control, lpr, NFS, NIS (Yellow Pages), SCCS, and sendmail. It was a full-featured Unix OS. All of these features, along with a development package (fortran and C) and the X11R4 environment, were included in the base package. Note that these were costly add-ons in many contemporary Unix distributions such as Xenix and SCO Unix.

On top of this solid Unix foundation sat a Macintosh Finder - A full System 7 graphical environment that allowed the system to run both Unix and Macintosh programs, while providing a user-friendly interface. (Sound's vaguely familiar, doesn't it?) I've included some screenshots to satisfy the curiosity of casual visitors, and to whet the appetite of those who might install the operating system...

These images show A/UX version 3.0.1 running on my Quadra 800 - Penelope. I purchased Penelope on Ebay in December of 2002. It was a complete system with keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I was the only bidder on a no-reserve auction, and the final price (before shipping) was one cent. However, 'Penny' is not a suitably dignified name for a Unix server. Having read Homer's Odyssey only a month earlier, 'Penelope' seemed a more appropriate choice.