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=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 4128 invoked from network); 7 Sep 2022 17:15:01 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 7 Sep 2022 17:15:01 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D521A41777; Thu, 8 Sep 2022 03:14:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-yw1-f172.google.com (mail-yw1-f172.google.com [209.85.128.172]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 40C2341776 for ; Thu, 8 Sep 2022 03:14:33 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-yw1-f172.google.com with SMTP id 00721157ae682-3450a7358baso107064327b3.13 for ; Wed, 07 Sep 2022 10:14:33 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=KK574xv//1K/GW5uEyZxlwgf0J55BSs6s69/NEOf+qs=; b=GYNcjEQxalqjW7GPcBfCakW/we+OQc+fT/pbeuXs48Oyl2hYuDXqmeN02eHr6K9eUH DjcoqMb4fOyMqt7uYPdtd4wRgZ+/LLe+SgrT6TXuVGr9CkISNl0HC7QHyl+6iS+t9+9L KOUpDH1wHHgrnp/jdZeqed+QC9nCFztZjwGxMwUjFm9m6cD/Whg6Tv59ICXf+oDsg7zm zGDhlFFKWycJ10qG5lqfuZWu+Yw3ENPxzEU3HhZLXhgZRX3WDXx95JY4pZ1wQocUnGEj G0DEJNKhs/F2tq5Rn96sHelKKWBoBJb8FWGGR+BeFYFL3h/30Y9aw27zpeYcy2HtS1mj tz+g== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=cc:to:subject:message-id:date:from:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date; bh=KK574xv//1K/GW5uEyZxlwgf0J55BSs6s69/NEOf+qs=; b=Or/lV61bpD3KwXaDiIceFU7GZXaP12wbC9zKXEp9vb0abn1Xd50Dc8WhD2RoEDN7xh R+925tWmRiL/2t8Hd2OqBjNgTt7N0zk2UhkQVJkMwD9k5NIlBTQW/3VPhlz9oNAfeolw aqDWTFuThIx5hCFoadFePtZqgBQN9VxU1vkzp8/80xKuGwBG5SYLx1X5lWinS32wj79O KP3e6Z6Jixef3uSbdXYXoDfnOt6K5G3Hs8JWP1BKRl2ytHUNdN41RUA+5zpHH70DKG/U nFzSvChHhermmDW07MaJiOQrWw8aLAC9dJw8oumvRaSJFAD0OTt4RwpO5elsDcH6JxpQ kinw== X-Gm-Message-State: ACgBeo3nl6Q97YsLD2Dz4uWCic8afnJjsyHMVhBSX3Ip2DY7fPsl1YAE 1MfAk7Z6YkgXvCmP4DZrXWp+6RgOXoniySs4fiowQ8ZI X-Google-Smtp-Source: AA6agR7L7iJheYYSu3kEo8CCvvsKiBq9Lpjw5hpKcOb4/osg/f3PxwtvL04y+vTRqRaetfBQdYY0/CLT1/8nVlKm1Ew= X-Received: by 2002:a81:c310:0:b0:345:644:4acc with SMTP id r16-20020a81c310000000b0034506444accmr4174785ywk.296.1662570812306; Wed, 07 Sep 2022 10:13:32 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 2002:a05:7000:660d:0:0:0:0 with HTTP; Wed, 7 Sep 2022 10:13:31 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <453CCF20-3A01-4655-A956-149EDC08FA36@canb.auug.org.au> From: Paul Winalski Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2022 13:13:31 -0400 Message-ID: To: steve jenkin Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Message-ID-Hash: UF4UMF7NPVEP3UJBDBDF4URYDZLM3D2O X-Message-ID-Hash: UF4UMF7NPVEP3UJBDBDF4URYDZLM3D2O X-MailFrom: paul.winalski@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: TUHS X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Has this been discussed on-list? How Unix changed Software. List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: > On 7 Sep 2022, at 02:09, Marc Donner wrote: > > By the mid-1980s the Microsoft folks established the notion that software > was economically valuable. People stopped giving away source code (IBM's > change in strategy was called OCO - "Object Code Only") and it totally > shocked the software developer community by destroying the jobs for > programmers at user sites. Combine that with the mid-1980s recession and > the first layoffs that programmers had ever seen and we saw the first > horrified realization that the social contract between programmers and > employers did not actually exist. Microsoft was a late-comer to the software-as-a-product game. Back in the 1970s IBM was forced into a consent decree to unbundle its software--OS, SW development tools, utilities--from its hardware. Originally IBM only leased its computers and the OSes, software development toolchain, and various products such as the sort utility were provided for free, along with the source code for them. IBM was later forced to sell its machines as well as lease them, and the unbundling of software was the last step in the progression. There were already third party software vendors in the IBM mainframe world in the 1970s. If you were at all serious about sorting you bought SyncSort instead of using the freebie IBM sort utility. In the research world there were pay-for statistical packages such as SPSS and BMDP. And third-party database products. IBM decided to make lemons out of lemonade and discovered to their delight that they now could make money by selling the software that they used to just give away. Naturally if you're making customers pay for software you don't want the liability risk of having them tinker with it, so you don't provide the sources anymore. Software has a radically different business model from hardware--there's a big initial development cost but manufacturing comes essentially for free. Management types used to the hardware-centric world initially had a lot of trouble seeing software as a revenue source. DEC never quite got the hang of it, and even today Intel doesn't understand software. By the time Microsoft came along selling software for profit was well-established. I remember when I saw PC software for sale for the first time being astonished that people would actually pay for copies of simple game programs such as "Hunt the Wumpus" or "Adventure". -Paul W.