From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,HTML_MESSAGE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 1530 invoked from network); 4 Dec 2021 21:40:11 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 4 Dec 2021 21:40:11 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 2E2379CF6F; Sun, 5 Dec 2021 07:40:08 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D0A59CE07; Sun, 5 Dec 2021 07:36:58 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=tuhs.org; s=dkim; t=1638654001; bh=OlVnssWRlC2cRcoXvYVjvy/2RiTSWnOyDUTTn01iynU=; h=References:To:From:Date:In-Reply-To:Subject:List-Id: List-Unsubscribe:List-Archive:List-Post:List-Help:List-Subscribe: From; b=0L7e3+ufX79+6A5VjRTPlt3j+jrhaJl0FfcFTXaaAyXfpf6NDtZ2rFVGJQs/rvZoE 2OVhdp1r0F++B+zBpOaMIZ99ffygv5zv+ZzpvigFSrsVBd+L5f2yh70fgHiTzDLaLR Biso34yGmG5in+bXFQ0tzlVQ71RAlvNizpYXMcas= Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 57F449CE07; Sun, 5 Dec 2021 07:36:52 +1000 (AEST) Received: from lenny.local.net (unknown [1.145.83.141]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id BE6489CDB6 for ; Sun, 5 Dec 2021 07:36:51 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=tuhs.org; s=dkim; t=1638653812; bh=OlVnssWRlC2cRcoXvYVjvy/2RiTSWnOyDUTTn01iynU=; h=Subject:References:To:From:Date:In-Reply-To:From; b=CsiZPABGkYijkI0L1Jkb3qj0TYtOZs1v/zOZZ9c9LxC2NOCKY5hjwHVZd7PslNRLA RrwwMHYEMtRTwnFKGrUGv3NYtbGVVV7BULSK60sReQLK0zZTFf+DQZLW0kt1KMFnR5 encHyv56joHLCA5QDdzU14ZYvvtZIWyryERsUeQ0= References: To: tuhs@tuhs.org From: Warren Toomey X-Forwarded-Message-Id: Message-ID: <3ecf4c2b-0a58-fce1-4bfe-ec64901c78c4@tuhs.org> Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2021 08:36:50 +1100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.14.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------7A187C5CB33A0E2EF4C439ED" Content-Language: en-US Subject: [TUHS] UNIX/AT&T patent licensing X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------7A187C5CB33A0E2EF4C439ED Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit All, I got this e-mail forwarded on from John Fox via Eric S. Raymond. Cheers, Warren Hi Eric, I think you might find this interesting. I have a 2001 copy of your book. I dog-eared page 9 twenty years ago because of this section: It spread very rapidly with AT&T, in spite of the lack of any formal support program for it. By 1980 it had spread to a large number of university and research computing sites, and thousands of hackers considered it home. Regarding the "spread", I believe one of the contributing factors was AT&T's decision to give the source code away to universities. And in doing so, unwittingly provided the fertile soil for open source development. I happen to know the man who made that decision. He was my father-in-law. He died Tuesday. He had no idea what UNIX was, and had no idea what his decision helped to create. Funny when things we do have such a major impact without us even knowing. That was certainly true in this case. Anyway, I thought you'd be interested to know. His name is John (Jack) H. Bolt. He was 95. PS, before making the decision, he called Ken Olson at DEC to see if he'd be interested in buying it, lock, stock, and barrel. Jack's opening offer was $250k. Olson wasn't interested. And on that, Jack's decision was made. John Fox --------------7A187C5CB33A0E2EF4C439ED Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

All, I got this e-mail forwarded on from John Fox via Eric S. Raymond.

Cheers, Warren


Hi Eric, I think you might find this interesting.

I have a 2001 copy of your book. I dog-eared page 9 twenty years ago because of this section:

It spread very rapidly with AT&T, in spite of the lack of any formal support program for it. By 1980 it had spread to a large number of university and research computing sites, and thousands of hackers considered it home.

Regarding the "spread", I believe one of the contributing factors was AT&T's decision to give the source code away to universities. And in doing so, unwittingly provided the fertile soil for open source development.

I happen to know the man who made that decision. He was my father-in-law. He died Tuesday. He had no idea what UNIX was, and had no idea what his decision helped to create. Funny when things we do have such a major impact without us even knowing. That was certainly true in this case.

Anyway, I thought you'd be interested to know. His name is John (Jack) H. Bolt. He was 95.

PS, before making the decision, he called Ken Olson at DEC to see if he'd be interested in buying it, lock, stock, and barrel. Jack's opening offer was $250k. Olson wasn't interested. And on that, Jack's decision was made.

John Fox

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