Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!munnari!otc!metro!ubo!kylie!christie From: christie@kylie.oz (Chris Tham) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: AT&T Joining OSF Message-ID: <343@kylie.oz> Date: 11 Aug 88 03:48:12 GMT References: <10474@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <5960008@hpcupt1.HP.COM> <5796@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <377@ksr.UUCP> <62485@sun.uucp> Reply-To: christie@kylie.otr.oz (Chris Tham) Organization: Optech Research Pty. Ltd., Sydney, AUSTRALIA Lines: 31 In article <62485@sun.uucp> pope@vatican (John Pope) writes: >In article <377@ksr.UUCP>, richt@breakpoint (Rich Title) writes: >> >> ... DEC ships sources in >> micro-fiche format *free* with every major release, and machine-readable >> source is available for those who want to pay for it. Which, is >> a whole lot more open than Sun, for example. > >C'mon, this is really getting silly, even for this conversation. Sun also makes >source available for those who want to pay for it. As for free fiche listings, >VMS runs on DEC hardware only. This is obviously not the case with SunOS, so I >can't imagine what prompted your comparison. That's really funny. I thought SunOS only runs on Sun hardware. If I was trying to make SunOS run on an IBM PC/XT :-) for example, I would have to rewrite a _lot_ of code, especially like ALL the device drivers and 68020/SPARC assembly. Most of the libraries like PixRect would probably need to be rewritten as well. The point is, SunOS is either wholly or partially derived from UNIX, either BSD4.2 or System V R2, source. Giving SunOS microfiche *free* with every release of SunOS would probably contravene Sun's existing software licence with AT&T and/or Berkeley. So why doesn't AT&T release *free* microfiche copies of System V? Simple. Because UNIX is designed to be a _portable_ operating system, releasing unrestricted source in any form would be like shooting oneself in the foot, especially if one is licencing said source code to other commercial organizations for big bucks. -- ACSNET/CSNET: christie@kylie.oz.AU ARPA: christie%kylie.oz.AU@UUNET.UU.NET JANET: christie%kylie.oz@uk.cc.ucl.cs PHONE: +612 235-0255 UUCP: {uunet,hplabs,mcvax,ukc,nttlab}!munnari!kylie.oz!christie MAIL: Chris Tham, Optech Research Pty Ltd, Level 60 MLC Centre Sydney 2000 AUST