Editing A/UX (section)

==Reception==
A/UX 1.0 was criticized in the April 1988 ''[[InfoWorld]]'' review for having a largely [[command line interface]] as in other Unix variants, rather than [[WIMP (computing)|graphical]] as in System 6. Its networking support was praised.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |date=April 4, 1988 |title=A/UX: This Operating System Is Far From Being "Unix for the Rest of Us" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6D4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43 |first=Don |last=Crabb| volume=11| issue=14| page=43}}</ref> ''[[BYTE]]'' in 1989 listed A/UX 1.1 among the "Excellence" winners of the ''BYTE'' Awards, stating that it "could make Unix the multitasking operating system of choice during the next decade" and challenge [[OS/2]].<ref name="byte198901">{{Cite magazine |date=January 1989 |title=The BYTE Awards |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1989-01/1989_01_BYTE_14-01_PC_Communications_and_Annual_Awards_and_Digitizing_Tablets/page/n371/mode/2up |magazine=BYTE |page=327| volume=14| issue=1}}</ref> Compared to contemporary workstations from other Unix vendors, however, the Macintosh hardware lacks features such as [[demand paging]]. The first two versions A/UX consequently suffered poor performance,<ref name="A/UX, Release 1.1 Supports X Window"/> and poor sales.<ref name="InfoWorld August 1992"/> Users also complained about the amount of hard drive space it uses on a standard Macintosh, though comparable to any Unix system.<ref name="Apple keen on Unix future"/>

A/UX 3.0 was praised in the August 1992 issue of ''InfoWorld'' by the same author, describing it as "an open systems solution with the Macintosh at its heart" where "Apple finally gets Unix right". He praised the GUI, single-button point-and-click installer, one year of personal tech support, the graphical help dialogs, and the user's manuals, saying that A/UX "defies the stereotype that Unix is difficult to use" and is "the easiest version of Unix to learn". Its list price of {{US$|709|1992|long=no|round=-2}} is much higher than that of "much weaker" competing PC operating systems such as System 7, [[OS/2]], [[MS-DOS]], and [[Windows 3.1]], but low compared to the then prevailing proprietary Unix licenses of more than {{US$|2000|1992|long=no|round=-2}}. The review found the system speed "acceptable but not great" even on the fastest Quadra 950, blaming not the software but the incomplete Unix optimization found in Apple's hardware. Though "a very good value", the system's price-performance ratio was judged as altogether uncompetitive against Sun's [[SPARCstation 2]]. The reviewers thought it unlikely for users "to want to buy Macs just to run A/UX" and would have awarded ''InfoWorld''{{'}}s top score if the OS was not proprietary to Macintosh hardware.<ref name="InfoWorld August 1992">{{cite magazine |title=Apple finally gets Unix right with A/UX 3.0 |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |date=August 10, 1992 |first=Don |last=Crabb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ElEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68 |pages=68–69| volume=14| issue=32}}</ref>

[[Tony Bove]] of the ''Bove & Rhodes Report'' generally complained that "[f]or Unix super-users there is no compelling reason to buy Apple's Unix. For Apple, A/UX has always been a way to sell Macs, not Unix; it's a check-off item for users."<ref name="InfoWorld Nov 1991"/>

===Legacy===
Vintage A/UX users had one central repository for most A/UX applications: an Internet [[Server (computing)|server]] at [[NASA]] called Jagubox. It was administered by [[Jim Jagielski]], who was also the editor of the A/UX [[FAQ]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}