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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
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Subject: Re: Not history, Privilege Levels Below User
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2024 00:21:01 -0000 (UTC)
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On Sat, 8 Jun 2024 10:17:36 -0000 (UTC), John Levine wrote:

> On the other hand, if Multics hadn't been so late, and so closely tied
> to expensive hardware that wasn't byte addressable and was already
> running out of address bits, who knows how much of its other features
> might have been more widely adopted.

Multics did finally reach production, and was still available for purchase 
into the 1980s. There is a brochure from Honeywell (who took over the GE 
computer business), dated 1982, that touts its features. And considering 
it had been something like 15 years since development commenced at that 
point, it doesn’t look dated at all. What other platforms from that time 
had integrated graphics, text processing and database support?

I heard somewhere that Honeywell had no idea what to do with this MULTICS 
thing. They priced it at something obscene (seven figures) to put off 
people buying it, but some customers stayed loyal, regardless.