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Remember when Apple built a Mac OS running on top of Solaris and HP-UX? Seriously. It happened.
Macintosh Application Environment for Unix -- from back in 1994.
November 01, 2023
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In the 1990s, Microsoft developed software (Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and Outlook Express) for both Solaris and HP-UX — which brought a small dash of “Windows-y-ness” to UNIX-land.

But did you know that Apple brought the entire Mac System 7 to Solaris and HP-UX?

It’s true! First released in 1994 — and discontinued in 1998 — it was called “Macintosh Application Environment”. And it really-really works!

Note: The “Macintosh Application Environment” is not A/UX, Apple’s UNIX system for some of their 68k Macintoshes. Two totally different beasts. Apple has had a lot of toes in the UNIX waters for quite some time.

If you have a Sun SPARCstation (running Solaris 2.4) or an HP UNIX workstation (HP-UX 9 or 10)… you can run an entire Mac System 7.x instance… right within it’s own X window. With the ability to copy and paste text (and graphics) between Mac applications and UNIX applications.

Check it out. This is the screenshot that Apple, itself, used to promote this crazy beast.

That screenshot is using CDE (Common Desktop Environment), which was de-facto on Solaris and HP-UX back in those days.

But, technically, there’s no reason the Macintosh Application Environment (MAE) can’t be run under other desktop environments on top of either system. In fact, here’s a screenshot of MAE booting on Solaris… running the GNOME desktop.

This comes from a recent Twitter thread of someone showing off their SPARCstation… running Macintosh Application Environment. With a bunch of pictures.

Before we go any further… we need to take a detour over to Apple.com.

Not Apple.com nowadays… Apple.com from back when the final version of the Macintosh Application Environment was released — 1997. And, not really “Apple.com”, per se. But “MAE.Apple.com.”

Here — I kid you not — is what that glorious website looked like.

Ok. Seriously. There’s a lot of fascinating information here. How Apple handled the demo version. The prominent 1-800 number listings. But… But… WHAT IN THE WHAT.

Zoom in. Upper left quadrant. ENHANCE!

Holy Sumo wrestler in a tu-tu, Batman!

That, right there, is what we call a decision.

Someone was working on this website at Apple, back in the late 1990s, and was thinking to himself, “I got it. I know just what this website for the Macintosh Application Environment for UNIX needs.”

Powerful stuff.

I was pretty on-the-fence about this whole MacOS-on-UNIX thing. But then I saw this sumo wrestler. In a tutu. Wearing a tiara. And, well, that really — Holy cow, is he on a skateboard? Yep. He’s on a skateboard.

Well. That settles it. This is the coolest thing to grace Apple.com. Ever.

*ahem* Where were we? Ah. Yes.

So. How does all this work?

Is it a virtual machine? Yes. Yes it is. Mostly.

Courtesy the MAE 3.0 Whitepaper

It is, essentially, a 68040 emulator with a Mac ROM and System 7.5.3 sitting on top of it. Though, it’s performance — thanks partially, I think, to that wonderfully named “Mac/UNIX Scaffolding” chunk there in the middle — was quite reasonable.

Side Note: I worked for HP back in the late ‘90s, supporting HP-UX and other UNIX workstations. Only ever saw one machine with the MAE in use. But I recall thinking that it wasn’t the fastest Macintosh you could use at the time… but it wasn’t the slowest, either. Which I found impressive.

This system, by the end, was pretty doggone powerful. You could copy/paste between the Mac “virtual machine”…. and UNIX software. And you could access all of your UNIX partitions from the Mac side.

Thanks… you know… to the “scaffolding”.

From the Macintosh Application Environment Administrator’s Manual. (Thanks Archive.org!)

Note the toolbar along the bottom to provide some extra UNIX integration features.

Snippet from the MAE 3.0 Whitepaper

Oh! And check out the detailed breakdown of memory usage.

How awesome would it be if software nowadays shipped with details about memory usage like that? “We use this many MB for this code over here… and another X MBs for the graphics buffers…”

That should be a thing!

Also… Only 24 MB of RAM! Total! Ah, those were the days! The 90s were awesome.

Supposedly even AppleTalk works, at least according to the User Manual (which is different than the Administrator’s manual).

Installing MAE was a decidedly old-school, UNIX-y affair. All in the terminal, baby!

Screenshot courtesy of this archived website.

And here’s the About screen for the demo version of the very first release:

”The virtual Macintosh for Open Systems”… love that.

A screenshot of the trial version… because it amuses me. That HUGE 1-800 banner along the bottom of the window. It just takes up so much space. And simply seeing a 1-800 on screen, in an application window, is almost jarring. You just don’t expect to see that anymore.

MAE 2.0 screenshot which I found over here.

You know. Worth pondering on… This was 1994. In context, here are other things that came to pass in 1994:

  • Linux hit version 1.0.

  • Windows 95… was not out yet.

The idea of being able to run a SPARCstation or HP-UX box… and have a full Mac inside it (essentially)… during a time dominated by Windows 3.1… sounds pretty darned amazing.

Oh. Oh! Check this out.

There was a time when Apple has email mailing lists. That is the MAE User list. And Apple published the archives for people to search. I tell ya. Was a different time at Apple.

A couple final, parting thoughts:

  • This is Apple making, selling, and supporting running a version of the Mac operating system… on non-Apple hardware.  Even hosted on non-Apple software!

  • That sumo wrestler in the tutu.  That... that is something.

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openSUSE is worth saving. And I think it's possible.

openSUSE Linux has a long, rich history -- coupled with a uniquely valuable feature-set.

Unfortunately, serious mismanagement, a lack of vision, almost zero marketing, and (worst of all) a policy of deliberate alienation of half the population... has put openSUSE on a bad road.

Here I cover what, specifically, is going wrong with openSUSE... and how I believe it could be not only fixed, but set on a path towards massive success.

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November 08, 2023
When Apple built MacOS... for Solaris and HP-UX. In 1994.

Back in 1994, Apple released the Macintosh Application Environment for UNIX. And it was kind of amazing.

This is the Audio/Video version of the following article:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4812552/remember-when-apple-built-a-mac-os-running-on-top-of-solaris-and-hp-ux-seriously-it-happened

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Ranting about Apple hardware... and glue - Lunduke's Big Tech Show - November 1st, 2023

It needs to be done. Because it's a day that ends in Y.

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November 22, 2023
The futility of Ad-Blockers

Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.

It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links? Check here:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

The futility of Ad-Blockers
November 21, 2023
openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"

Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.

Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣

Looking for the Podcast RSS feed or other links?
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4619051/lunduke-journal-link-central-tm

Give the gift of The Lunduke Journal:
https://lunduke.locals.com/post/4898317/give-the-gift-of-the-lunduke-journal

openSUSE says "No Lunduke allowed!"
September 13, 2023
"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044

This episode is free for all to enjoy and share.

Be sure to subscribe here at Lunduke.Locals.com to get all shows & articles (including interviews with other amazing nerds).

"Andreas Kling creator of Serenity OS & Ladybird Web Browser" - Lunduke’s Big Tech Show - September 13th, 2023 - Ep 044
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I remember what it was like...

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Here's a fun one for @JohnBlood

Atari just put out an ad in the style of their old 1970's magazine ads. It's amazing:

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SUSE's ex-CEO ousted after greenlighting "risky deals"
New details uncovered about the abrupt departure of the Linux company's CEO earlier this year.

On March 22nd of this year, the CEO of SUSE (Melissa di Donato) was unexpectedly announced to no longer be working for the Linux company -- effective that very day.

At the time, it seemed likely (but unconfirmed) that di Donato was fired from her position simply based on her less than stellar performance in the role.

  • She oversaw the IPO of SUSE on the German Stock Exchange, which had results which were "not great" at first.  Then it got worse.
  • As time went on, di Donato oversaw SUSE as it lost close to half of the company's valuation (eventually leading the majority shareholders to seek a de-listing of the company).
  • The CEO was so desperate for positive press, that SUSE paid multiple companies to give her fake awards.  Seriously.  That actually happened.

In the days following di Donato's ousting, confidential sources suggested to The Lunduke Journal that there was more to the story -- that there were significant, non-public reasons for her "immediate departure".  More than simply poor performance and cringe-worthy, self-awards.

Thanks to new reporting from Reuters, we might be gaining new insight into what those reasons might be.

Apparently, under di Donato, the SUSE Board felt it was necessary to create a new "Deal Desk" to research and authorize any sizable corporate deal -- to ensure that it was not a "high risk" deal for SUSE.  Even going so far as to issue a warning, to shareholders, about such potentially risky existing deals.

When a corporate Board establishes a new system to review "risky" deals made under specific leadership... that is a pretty strong indicator that "risky" deals were being made.

Where there's smoke... there's fire.

From the Reuters article:

"SUSE may enter into high-risk or commercially inappropriate deals if it does not exercise effective control over the Sales organization," it said in the report. The company noted that "'Commercial governance' is a newly identified risk this year" and a heatmap in the report ranked the risk as "possible" and its impact on the business as "high".

A warning to shareholders -- along with assurances the the company would be protected from future risky deals by the new "Deals Desk" -- was issued on January 19th.  The SUSE CEO was ousted, without notice, on March 22nd.

So what, exactly, happened in the 63 days between those two events?

It turns out... big, risky deals.  And those new deals did not get reviewed by that "Deal Desk".

"According to four documents reviewed by Reuters and two of the people with knowledge of the situation, Di Donato greenlighted the commercial terms of a roughly $1.4 million sale to South African utility Eskom in late January, bypassing the deal desk's scrutiny in order to speed the process, less than two weeks after SUSE told investors the desk would help to improve controls."

Reuters obtained internal SUSE emails that appear to corroborate this:

"On January 30,  after commercial terms of the Eskom deal had been agreed, a senior SUSE executive said in an email to other company officials that the terms had not been submitted to the deal desk.

 

In late February, an executive told colleagues in an email that the sale had not been scrutinized by the deal desk."

Then, a few weeks later, di Donato was -- without warning -- no longer the CEO of SUSE.  The departure was so abrupt and unplanned... that SUSE was left without a CEO over a month and a half.

At this point, things appear to be in damage control mode for SUSE -- with shareholders voting in November to de-list the company from the stock exchange and take SUSE private.  SUSE no longer being a publicly traded company will significantly reduce the requirements on what sort of information gets reported publicly... including, potentially, about specific, risky deals.

As for Melissa di Donato, she appears to have lawyered up.  When Reuters reached out to di Donato for comment... those comments were handled entirely by her attorneys.

What all of this means for the future of the world's longest running Linux company remains to be seen.

The Lunduke Journal has reached out to sources at SUSE for confirmation regarding some details of this report.

Read full Article
November 29, 2023
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Wikimedia profit, assets, and executive wages explode in 2023
(And yet Wikipedia claims to desperately need your donations.)

The Wikimedia Foundation (the organization which runs and controls Wikipedia) has just published their annual financial report for the current year -- and they made a mountain of money.

Revenue is up.  Total assets are up.  Everything, with Wikimedia, is up.  Way, way up.

Including salaries for their executives.  In an extreme way.

At this point, they are Scrooge McDuck swimming through the money in their vault.

Yet, if you go to Wikipedia.org right now, you will be told -- with a great deal of urgency and alarm -- that "it will soon be too late to help us" and that they desperately need you to "please give".

This is one of the least dire-sounding plea for donations in quite some time.

Let's take a quick tour of Wikimedia's current financials to see exactly how rich they are... and how they truly are using those donations.  (And exactly how rich their executives are growing.)

See also: "The Wiki Piggy Bank -- Wikimedia grows rich as Wikipedia donations are used for political causes"

The Money Vault

So, how much money does Wikimedia have, on hand, as of the current filings in 2023?  A lot.  A whole heck of a lot.  Over a quarter of a Billion dollars.

And that's just at first glance.

The deeper you dig, the more money you find.

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November 27, 2023
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openSUSE ditches recognizable, beloved logo
Because everything else with their Linux distro is going down the toilet... so why not?

Note: This article is not a joke.  It is not satire.  It is a very real -- and very stupid -- thing that is happening right now.  And, while it may only impact a small portion of the Linux-using world, it is simply too ridiculous to not talk about.

I've talked about the problems with openSUSE a few times before.  It is an historically significant piece of the Linux world... one which I used to sit on the Board of.  I have a deep fondness for openSUSE, despite the many problems, and gross mismanagement, it currently faces.

Yet, despite all of the problems that plague openSUSE -- ranging from deliberate alienation of 50% of their users... to a confusing, ever-changing array of download options --  there has remained one aspect of this Linux distribution that has been rock solid.

The logo.

It may be a small thing... but it's important.

The openSUSE chameleon is one of the most recognizable and beloved logos and mascots in the Linux world (perhaps only second to Tux the Penguin, himself).

The current, longtime openSUSE logo and mascot.

I used to go to Linux conferences with boxes full of hundreds of stuffed openSUSE chameleon plushies... people clammored for them.  I would stand on stage and toss them out to people, often literally jumping up and down for them.  Those boxes would be empty within moments.  That logo / mascot was instantly recognizable, on sight.

And, just as importantly, it made people smile.

So if there's one thing that openSUSE would not possibly think about changing... it's that logo.  Right?

And, yet, that is exactly what openSUSE has decided to do.  To take what is one of the only good pieces of branding they have... and throw it into the garbage.

Right now, the openSUSE membership is voting one which proposed logo to replace it with.  Here's a sampling.

Seriously.  One of these might be the new openSUSE logo.

In all honesty... I can't decide which of those logos I hate the most.  And what, exactly, is that weird aligator on the right doing to the poor... is that an iOS app icon?  You know what.  I don't even want to know.

Which abomination will the openSUSE members choose to replace their existing, recognizable, beloved logo?  It will be interesting to see, when voting finishes.

"Interesting" in the same way that "sneezing out a giant booger onto your computer screen and then trying wipe it up with your sleeve only to realize that you now have a pretty big booger on your sleeve" is... "interesting".

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