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Received: by minnie.vk1xwt.ampr.org with NNTP id AA7420 ; Fri, 22 Jan 93 11:44:28 EST Xref: sserve comp.org.eff.talk:11818 comp.unix.bsd:10259 comp.unix.wizards:28297 comp.org.usenix:3162 Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!sgiblab!sdd.hp.com!think.com!ames!agate!soda.berkeley.edu!gwh From: gwh@soda.berkeley.edu (George William Herbert) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.wizards,comp.org.usenix Subject: Re: ENOUGH! Re: BSDI/USL Lawsuit -- More Bad News for Human Beings... Date: 21 Jan 1993 07:01:46 GMT Organization: Dis- Lines: 47 Sender: gwh@soda.berkeley.edu (George William Herbert) Distribution: inet Message-ID: <1jlhoq$5t5@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <1ja6bgINNh23@chnews.intel.com> <BZS.93Jan16205935@world.std.com> <1993Jan20.230616.25164@igor.tamri.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu Summary: Oh Really? If Berkeley/CSRG was the "Forces of Evil" for having "with malice aforethought" taken AT&T's money-generating code away from them, it's taken a long time for the "Forces of Good" to state their position. I find it idiotic that anyone can take USL seriously at face value when for at least the last five years Berkeley has been, with near universal acclaim, saying they were going to do exactly what they are pretty close to have done; release a free version, and all AT&T/USL did was hmm and make sure the code that was released, as it came out, was clean... UNIX is far from a dead end. Indeed, the very similarity between UNIX and that which would replace it indicates that UNIX is likely to remain, in functon if not form. Free UNIX isn't a threat to commercial products. It never has been. Free UNIX is an invitation to the whole world to come and play in our wonderful, feature filled world, with the hardware they have today and little else. Free UNIX is a tool to enable people, not a way to bash on companies or restrict research into better ways of doing something. If something better comes along than UNIX, I'll take a look. If it's not free, but it's better enough, I'll pay for it like I (or my company) pay for the UNIXes we use today. If it's free but supported, we'll smile and take it anyway, but the money we save there isn't going to be all that much. But if it's free and millions more people can use the Internet, Usenet News, email, and the rest of what comes (albeit not exclusively) with UNIX, then it's not just software, it's a revolution. Small minded people at USL think that they're going to lose something by having this happen. They might have a legal leg to stand on in saying it's not fair to them if the code release occurs, they might not: until I see the disputed code, and the court decisions that myst by necessity rule on how much different code need be to be free, I can't judge now. But saying that the world will be a better place if it doesn't happen is ignoring the whole point behind PERSONAL computing, universal network access, etc. People with computers are more than just people. I want to see more of it happen. UNIX is THE tool to make it happen, it's the standard, the lowest fully capable denominator. I don't give a flying fart whether something better comes along tomorrow, I want that LCD in as many hands today as possible. Sitting on our hands waiting for computers to become perfect before they start having significant social effects is stupid. -george william herbert gwh@soda.berkeley.edu gwh@lurnix.com