AT&T and Unix - The real issue

[Mike Schloss]

>>I'm happy that you two are able to obtain Unix source code at a reasonable
>>price. AT&T wants $40k from me. Maybe if AT&T were doing something nice for
>>me I might not think about holes in their license. I'm just a single hacker,
>>not connected to any university that got Unix cheap, so it costs me the full
>>$40k if I want the sources legally. All your comments about how easy it is
>>to change Unix, how enlightened AT&T is to make it available cheap, and how
>>much better off we all are because AT&T is like this: THEY DONT APPLY TO
>>PEOPLE WHO ARENT AT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CANT AFFORD $40,000. While
>>there is some argument that everybody is better off because Berkeley got
>>Unix cheap, that isnt enough to satisfy me.
>> ....
>>So before you start saying how nice AT&T is, think about who they are being
>>nice to. To you they may be giving cheap sources, but they are saying "Let
>>them eat binaries" to the rest of us.

AT&T doesnt distribute UNIX source cheaply to random hackers for a number
of reasons:
	1) Not profitable.
	2) They lose some (most) of their control over it.  What are they
	   going to do if you distribute the source to 10 of your friends,
	   sue you?  What does that get them?

By not selling it cheap they lose a few small customers.  Big Deal.
Besides, most of the people who want to hack/look at the source already
can.  They get jobs working for OEMs, VARs, and software houses where
not only do they get to hack with the source, they get paid for it.  I
would guess that most of the people on the net fall into this category.

>>>> "everybody is better off because Berkeley got Unix cheap." <<<<

Bullshit.
	AT&T is better off because Berkeley got Unix cheap.

Where do you think Unix would be now hadn't it taken off in the
university environment?  No where. Deceased. Defunct.
	[ I hear shouts of sacrilege and treason.]

Where was IBM's CMS back in 1964 when it was being developed? Nowhere.
The same place any "great and wonderful" piece of software go when nobody
goes around extolling it's virtues (and marketing it).  

I would not be surprised if sometime in the near future the educational
source discounts dried up.  Now that UNIX has a real market, AT&T doesnt
really need them anymore.

				Mike Schloss