att & osf

[Rich Strebendt, AT&T-DSG @ Indian Hill West]

In article <4964 at killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, dono at killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Don OConnell) writes:
> >From: bzs at bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
> >From: kluft at hpcupt1.HP.COM (Ian Kluft)
> >>rogers at ofc.Columbia.NCR.COM (H. L. Rogers) writes:
> >>> Does AT&T membership give respectability to the OSF crowd?
> >>Actually, it was AT&T and Sun who were lacking in respectability after
> >>trying to steal the whole market for themselves.
> >"Steal" is a very strange choice of words to apply to the owner (AT&T).
> Strange "owner".
> They didn't want anything to do with it's creation or even support
> until a lot of different people were enthralled with it.

Sigh.

Why is it that AT&T's roles and positions get so garbled in time, and
all sort of nasty motives imputed, where none existed.

This is probably futile, in view of the anti-AT&T sentiment of many on
the net (part of the "Big is Bad" view of the world?), but my
conscience will not allow me to remain silent.  Be advised that this is
the view of someone who was not in on the beginnings himself, but who
has been around and involved in the Software world to have a fair
degree of understanding of the history.  I invite the actual
participants to correct any misstatements I may make.

The developers of the UNIX Operating System and of the C Programming
Language were indeed supported by AT&T.  They were members of Bell
Telephone Laboratories, and were paid a modest but reasonable salary
for their labors.  They were allowed the use of some otherwise idle
computer gear when they requested it, and were allowed to develop their
toy operating system unmolested.  When others in the Laboratories
discovered that this "toy" was damn useful, company resources were used
in many locations to make it available for use.  I had the good fortune
to be on the sidelines when UNIX was first brought up on a PDP/11 in
the Indian Hill Computer Center here in Illinois (where we now have a
huge number of Comp Center and private machines running it -- including
the UNIX PC on which I am typing this note!).

> It is only the greed of the corporate environment that makes ATT want to
> have anything to do with UNIX(Although they are not alone in this philosophy).

At that time AT&T was under the constraints of the 1956 Consent Decree
which did not allow AT&T to sell commercial computers or software.  In
its "greed" the company allowed the Bell Labs people to virtually give
away copies of the UNIX source to their collegues at Universities
around the world.  It was not totally free, of course, but no great
sums of money were made in this distribution of the programs.  The cost
was largely to cover the cost of administering the distribution program
(personel, media costs, etc.).

Once the 1956 Consent Decree was set aside by the Divestiture of 1984,
it was realized that the UNIX Operating System was a unique product of
AT&T and could be used to gain entry into the computer business that
was suddenly opened to the Company.  Subsequently, it has been developed
as a product, supported as a product, and marketed as a product.  Is
this "the greed of the corporate environment" ???  I guess it is as
much that as it is greed that makes Apple Computer actually charge
MONEY for THEIR products, or makes Microsoft actually expect you to PAY
for a copy of MS-DOS!!!

> Signed Don
> "One who only has 2 cents worth to give."

Let us hope that my own $0.02 can help to dispell some of the
misinformation that runs rampant on the net.

				Rich Strebendt
				...!att![iwsl6|ihlpe|ihaxa]!res