Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!vortex!lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA From: lauren@RAND-UNIX.ARPA Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Unix and AT&T Message-ID: <7267@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 06:36:58 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.7267 Posted: Sun Jan 13 06:36:58 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:02:38 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 32 I'm getting somewhat disgusted at these messages trying to find ways to ridicule the Unix trade secret agreements by poking holes in this or that. It's as if people are now saying that since AT&T *didn't* behave in a dictatorial manner when handling Unix licenses (by not making *every* person who *touches* the system sign *everything*, and not designing the system so that *nothing* was readable, etc.) they are now subject to being laughed at. People seem to be saying that since AT&T *didn't* act like a scrooge when it came to making the system available, and *didn't* play big brother watching over all Unix users 24/hrs/day, they are now fair game for ridicule. Hogwash. I think these attitudes show a profound lack of ethics, regardless of the legal issues (and those issues are considerably more complex than messages in this list might lead one to believe -- there's been one hell of a lot of MISinformation being passed around this list on this topic.) I'd like to know where some of these Unix gurus would be today if AT&T hadn't used trade secret licensing (just about the only way they had to make Unix available at the time) in the manner they did. Most likely many of you would be spending all your time doing FORTRAN programming on a TOPS-20 system today. (No, I'm not knocking TOPS-20 -- not here, anyway...) I for one (and I don't care if I'm a cult of one on this score) think that AT&T deserves one hell of a lot more respect on this issue than many people seem to be giving them. A personal opinion, of course. --Lauren--