[TUHS] System Economics (was is Linux "officially branded UNIX")

[pepe@naleco.com ('Josh Good')]

On 2017 Mar 15, 16:26, Ron Natalie wrote:

> We had the source code from Interactive Systems for their 386
> implementations of IS/1 (pretty bare bones SysV)

You had it. But was it available as a purchasing option "through the
distribution channel" to the public at large, or was it only available
to companies which entered a "joint venture" with Interactive Systems?

> Anyhow you didn???t need the source to rebuild the kernels and write
> device drivers.  The necessary header file were there along with the
> .o files needed to link your new stuff to the kernel.

If you wanted to fix the serial driver to work with a faster UART chip,
you could not do it (other than hacking hex in the object files).
Rebuilding the kernel pretty much only existed because the kernel used
hard coded config settings which needed relinking to be changed. The
object files themselves were set in stone by the vendor and the final
user had to option to change them.

If relinking the kernel to load different kernel modules, and the
ability to write device drivers for certain subsystems equals an open
system, then Windows NT is also an open system.

-- 
Josh Good