AT&T clean UNIX

[Danny Boulet]

In article <8127 at spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun at spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes:
>dab at ubitrex.mb.ca (Danny Boulet) writes:
>>While reading my latest UNIX World last night, I noticed a small article
>>in the Newsbytes section that told of a company (Berkeley something or other)
>>which is hoping to have a clone of BSD UNIX ready for shipping in September.
>>The article claimed that the clone would not have any AT&T code in it.
>>This would allow them to sell the system (including full source) for an
>>introductory price of $995 (later to rise to $1,995). 
>
>_Allow_ them to sell it at this price, notably higher than any existing
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
						^^^^^^
>386-based Unix O/S products?  And using the word Berkeley in the company
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 I think that you missed a VERY important point in the Unix World article
 and in my request for information.  The product that they propose to sell
 would include FULL SOURCE for the system.  All the existing 386 UNIX
 products are BINARY ONLY releases.  AT&T charges something on the order
 of US$50,000 (yes - FIFTY THOUSAND US DOLLARS) for a SOURCE license.  $1,995
 or $995 for a UNIX clone with full source is a VERY VERY good deal (assuming
 that it works and such of course).

>name is just plain un-cool:  I hope the folks at the real Berkeley cry
>foul.  This company even ripped off the BSD acronym:  it's called
>"Berkeley Software Design Inc.", and the article on p.16 of UnixWorld
>makes no mention of any affiliation or non-affiliation with BSD.  The
>article does point out that BSD Inc.'s engineers have been "loaned" to
>Berkeley for the 4.4 O/S (my assumption, correct me if I'm wrong, is that
>BSD Inc. provided a couple of consultants to Berkeley for an hourly fee.)
>
>Sorry I'm such a cynic, but when I read that article I came away with a
>rather bad feeling about this.  Were the list price significantly under
>$1995, perhaps I might not have this reaction.
>
>Are there any people from BSD Inc. or from Berkeley who are familiar
>with this case who can either follow up on this or send me e-mail to
>keep me quiet about this?
>
>-rich