LAN Manager - Development History

Development History

LAN Manager was based on the OS/2 operating system co-developed by IBM and Microsoft. It originally used the Server Message Block protocol atop either the NetBIOS Frames protocol (NBF) or a specialized version of the Xerox Network Systems (XNS) protocol. These legacy protocols had been inherited from previous products such as MS-Net for MS-DOS, Xenix-NET for MS-Xenix, and the afore-mentioned 3+Share.

A version of LAN Manager for Unix-based systems called LAN Manager/X (aka LAN Manager for Unix or LM/X) was marketed as well. The software was a port of the Windows version to various Unix implementations. This was produced from a joint project between HP and Microsoft in 1988-89. LM/X was initially offered for sale on HP-UX, SCO Unix, and ATT Unix starting in late summer 1989. The LM/X port included a small package for lightweight, synchronous threads. These HW specific components were provided for x86, PA and Motorola 68K microprocessors. The initial port had limited support for named pipes and mail slots, but supported both share and user based file system access.

In 1990, Microsoft announced LAN Manager 2.0 with a host of improvements, including support for TCP/IP as a transport protocol. The last version LAN Manager, 2.2, which included an MS-OS/2 1.31 base operating system, remained Microsoft's strategic server system until the release of Windows NT Advanced Server in 1993.

Many vendors shipped licensed versions, including:

  • 3Com Corporation 3+Open
  • HP LAN Manager/X
  • IBM LAN Server
  • Tapestry Torus

Read more about this topic:  LAN Manager

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