AT&T and Unix

[John McNamee]

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. When I get Unix running on my
own desktop machine I will want to make changes to the system that will
require sources. Since paying $40k is out of the question, my only choices
are to (1) steal the sources, (2) do without, or (3) scrap Unix and use
something that I can get sources to. If GNU works out then #3 will be a real
option, but right now it isnt. Being of low moral standards I would probably
choose #1 over #2. I'm not alone in this thinking. Lots of people have stolen
source tapes so they will have it when they need it.

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.
--
			John McNamee
		..!decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl
			jpm at BNL.ARPA