Newsgroups: comp.sys.xerox
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From: aek@wiretap.spies.com (Al Kossow)
Subject: Re: What has become of the Xerox Star?
Message-ID: <D3CHF8.7tp@wiretap.spies.com>
Organization: The Internet Wiretap
References: <3gm3boINNqvs@sun004.cpdsc.COM>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 23:33:07 GMT
Lines: 70

From article <3gm3boINNqvs@sun004.cpdsc.COM>, by dnevil@cpdsc.com (Daris Nevil):
>I am also interested in the Star, the Alto, and the Dorado, or any of the other
>systems from Xerox than ran Smalltalk.  I would like to obtain one of these
>machines.  Would like to hear from anyone that would like to donate one for
>a good cause (curiosity) ;-).  It would be well taken care of.
> 
> Daris Nevil
> Contract Software
> 

'Star' was software that ran on the 8010 workstation

The hardware that ran 'Star' was sold as the 8010 or as the 1108 if
it was running Interlisp

The Dorado was sold as the Xerox 1132 outside as a lisp workstation.

I've been actively collecting hardware and software for Altos and D Machines
for over 8 years, and have NEVER been able to find a copy of Smalltalk for
ANY D Machine.

Unless you are VERY seriously into hardware, I wouldn't suggest getting an
Alto or Dorado. They are VERY difficult to keep running, mainly due to their
age, and the disk technology they used. The monitors are also very difficult
to keep running.

There are lots of 8010's that show up, but almost all of them are running
Viewpoint or Lisp. Unless they were Lisp machines (called 1108 or 1109) they
also tend to have small (20-40mb) discs.

There really were not many Altos that ever made it outside of Xerox. There
were some that went to MIT, which were donated to the Boston Computer Museum
(who SOLD them to raise money!!), CMU, The Univ of Rochester, and Stanford.

I know of two Altos still in Boston, one of which came from the Computer Museum
sale.

A few bits from the CMU machines are in a private collectors hands in Pittsburgh
most of the rest of the stuff was probably scrapped.

The last pointer to the Univ of Rochester's machines lead to a CS Frat House
there, where I ran into a dead end.

..and I have what was left of the stuff from Stanford that was scrapped in the
mid-80's.

There was a Xerox Surplus Store in Dallas at one point, and I picked up some
bits and pieces there, about 5 years ago.

Other than that, the rest of the known Alto parts are buried withing Xerox,
gradually making it to the scrap dealers.

About the only possible place to find an Alto now would be in a scrap dealer
somewhere near a Xerox site that had them.

I've never had any luck getting anything from Xerox since the Surplus Store
shut down in the late 80's.

I still maintain an informal network of people who have the machines.

I would LOVE to hear from anyone that has bits and pieces of Altos to trade, or
who just have a machine that I haven't heard from in a while to update my email
list.

At this point, i'm not planning on selling anything to folk that don't already
have a machine. There are only a dozen or so people with working Altos still
around, and would really like to hear from anyone who can help keep them going.

al
(408)974-5136 wrk
