[smackeyacky]

My recollection of working in a similar environment was very different. The Comp Sci department wanted Unix but not for its own sake. They wanted access to the burgeoning software being produced for it aimed at academics. Tex/LaTeX was the biggest driver because it was the best way at the time to make a readable research paper that was heavy in math.

Then the students needed access to lex/yacc etc for their courses and X Windows too.

That we produced other Unix programs was just an artifact of the original drive to have Unix. The Compaq 386 or Macintosh II were niche products for that job and VMS had been turfed by the late eighties.