att & osf

[Gary Allen]

In article <2998 at homxc.UUCP> dwc at homxc.UUCP (Malaclypse the Elder) writes:
>and i believe that the founders of osf have different desires and
>goals.  while i believe that those members of osf whose systems
>depend on a widely accessible "definition" of the unix operating
>system truly felt locked out, i believe that at least two founding
>members have goals other than what is stated.  open systems are
>still the last thing on both ibm's and dec's minds (here i am talking
>about the higher ups...not the people who are working on open systems
>within their respective companies).  the majority of the systems they
>sell are proprietary and none of the talk of open systems has changed
>the way they market their main money makers.

You can correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't every single member of OSF
have a UNIX license, and doesn't every one of them sell UNIX in addition
to other products? And isn't it a fact that the 2 companies that you
single out are 2 of the major UNIX suppliers?

Proprietary systems? Yeah, they all also sell OS's of their own creation,
JUST AS PROPRIETARY AS YOURS, or don't you know what the word means?
In case you don't, I'll quote from Webster (the second definition):

   1. of, or relating to, or characteristic of a proprietor <~rights>;
   2. used, made, or marketed by one having the exclusive legal
      right <a ~ process>;
   3. privately owned and managed and run as a profit-making organization
      <a ~ clinic>

Now which definition is it that makes UNIX non-proprietary? I'm sure
we'd all like to know, since that'd mean we don't have to pay AT&T
any license fees.

And surely you must know that AT&T considers it to be proprietary, or
perhaps you've never seen (hope I don't get sued for this):

/*	THIS IS UNPUBLISHED PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODE OF AT&T	*/
/*	The copyright notice above does not evidence any   	*/
/*	actual or intended publication of such source code.	*/

Perhaps you mean portable instead of proprietary? And as to openness,
to whom exactly is the process of defining UNIX open? To Sun now.
Of course, they were the "bad guys" a few years ago, not following
AT&T's lead and all. Amazing how AT&T cozied up when Sun became
what many consider to be the "driving force" behind UNIX. Oh yeah,
Unisys is in their somewhere. Sure, wanna buy an bridge?

Hey, I like UNIX just fine, buts lets not bullshit anyone anymore
about what it is and is not.

And by the way, all of these Bad Companies (apologies to John
Paul Rodgers) have every right to sell other products in competition
with your company's, or must I also define capitalism for you as
well? Or perhaps some AT&T folk have the attitude that they're
still guaranteed market, profits, and success?

>i myself am most paranoid and imagine the worst possible scenarios.
>perhaps someone out there can answer some questions about osf independence
>from its founders.  for example, to whom must a non-profit corporate
>answer to?  does it have stockholders?  is it possbile for a large
>corporation to buy up a non-profit organization?  (here i am assuming
>that the osf is a non-profit corporation).  if the osf were to gain
>a large share of the unix market, is there any possible way for ibm
>to yank its porting base away and make it proprietary (or at least
>charge outrageous prices for it)?

Hey, some good questions about the non-profit status (it is non-profit
according to their marketing blurb that was passed out here)! As for
OSF gaining a large share of the market, OSF will sell code to vendors
(including the founders), not to individual users. If OSF sells
whatever-ix to IBM and IBM corners a large share of the market, it
will be IBM that has the market, not OSF. That is, unless you
believe that Microsoft has cornered the PC market and AT&T has
cornered the mini market.

As for IBM yanking OSF-ix away from OSF (if it were at all possible),
don't you think that DEC (their biggest competitor) might have something
to say about that?

Gary Allen
Apollo Computer
Chelmsford, MA
{decvax,yale,umix,mit-eddie}!apollo!gallen

Oh yeah, the opinions herein expressed aren't worth 2 bits and aren't
condoned by anyone that really counts.