Newsgroups: comp.sys.xerox
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!rocksanne!gargar!moore
From: moore@gargar (Lee C. Moore)
Subject: Re: What has become of the Xerox Star?
Message-ID: <1995Feb1.180000.16112@news.wrc.xerox.com>
Sender: news@news.wrc.xerox.com
Organization: Xerox Digital Imaging Technology Center, Webster, NY, USA
References: <1995Jan31.023625.2042@news.media.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 18:00:00 GMT
Lines: 42

In article <1995Jan31.023625.2042@news.media.mit.edu>,
Ron Newman <rnewman@media.mit.edu> wrote:
>I recall that the name was changed to "ViewPoint" some time
>in the 1980s, but that's about all I know. 

The project name "Star" (also the code name of the project)
was not legally defensible so a new name was chosen:
"Viewpoint".  This was also found not to be legally 
defensible so the name is now GlobalView.  This name
is licensed from somebody so it should be defensible.

>Does Xerox still sell proprietary hardware (Dandelion)
>to run this software?  Is it still written in Mesa?
>Does it still have its own proprietary operating system (Pilot)
>and window system (Tajo)?

Around 1984, the 6085 came out to replace the 8010
(Dandelion).  I don't believe this hardware is still
sold in the US.  You might be amused to know that
the GlobalView for MS-Windows emulates the 6085
instruction set.

The Sun, RS/6000 and Silicon Graphics ports of
GlobalView mostly use the Unix operating system
but still have some Pilot interfaces shims.  The
window system, part of BWS (not Tajo), translates into
X Window system calls.  The introduction of BWS
(Basic WorkStation) occurred with the introduction
of Viewpoint.  Before that, Star was a monolithic
system.  With BWS, users could add applications
to their system.

Lee

p.s. I interviewed with Star in 1979 but decided
to take a trip to grad school instead.

-- 
Lee C. Moore -- Digital Imaging Technology Center, Xerox Corp. --
Voice:	+1 (716) 422 2496
Internet:	Moore.Wbst128@Xerox.Com
lat: 43.219601 N, long: 77.419401 W
