Berkeley Flame

[mark at umcp-cs.UUCP]

Ignatz again makes the same strange statement we heard from
Laura a while ago--you should not change Unix at all ever,
even if you are a research University doing research in operating
systems.  Or if you do change it, you should keep it a secret,
or if you don't keep it a secret you should refuse to ever, ever
let anyone else use the change you made.

I'm afraid to my mind this amounts to stifling research and preventing
the free flow of scientific information among researchers.  
If someone does something interesting to an operating system,
even if they write an interesting paper about it, I like to
see it for myself, try it out, before forming a definite opinion
about it.  One cannot really resolve the merits of languages,
or operating systems, without trying them oneself for a decent
period of time.

So what is the poor researcher to do when the calls and/or tapes
come in from across the country requesting copies of the system
just described in the xyz journal?  If you say no, you are
tarnishing your reputation and unethically hindering scientific
research.  If you say yes Ignatz and Laura will flame at you.

I'll say yes.
-- 
spoken:	mark weiser
UUCP:	{seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!mark
CSNet:	mark at umcp-cs
ARPA:	mark.umcp-cs at CSNet-Relay