[ih] Why the Soviet Internet Failed

[Jaap Akkerhuis]

 Johan Helsingius via Internet-history writes:

 > I still remember the first (and last) Soviet UNIX conference in 1990
 > or 1991. Bill Joy from Sun was there, and Sun was donating a big batch
 > of obsolete Sun 3 machines.

There were multiple SUUG meetings.

Also, the Sun 3 machines were not donated. If I remember correctly,
Sun had just introduced the SPARC architecture and had surplus of
the old ones which didn't really sell. Also, the US govennment had
relaxed the export.

 > In one session, a bunch of Soviet/Russian academics were debating how
 > to port UNIX to some big Russian mainframe computer, and Bill Joy
 > stepped up to the mic and commented "you do realize that any of those
 > Sun 3:s will run circles around that mainframe".

I also remember being shown an IBM 360 clone (or was that on the
second SUUG meeting?).

	jaap