12 Part (Starting a web site) I . Linux First Steps UNIX
12 Part I . Linux First Steps UNIX Laboratory and Commercialization The UNIX Laboratory was considered a jewel that couldn t quite find a home or a way to make a profit. As it moved between Bell Laboratories and other areas of AT&T, its name changed several times. It is probably best remembered by its last name, which it had as it began its spin off from AT&T: UNIX System Laboratories (USL). The UNIX source code that came out of USL, the legacy of which is now owned by Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), is being used as the basis for lawsuits by SCO against major Linux vendors (such as IBM and Red Hat Inc.). Because of that, I think the efforts from USL that have contributed to the success of Linux are sometimes disrespected. You have to remember that, during the 1980s, many computer companies were afraid that a newly divested AT&T would pose more of a threat to controlling the computer industry than would an upstart company in Redmond, Washington. To calm the fears of IBM, Intel, DEC, and other computer companies, the UNIX Lab made the following commitments to ensure a level playing field: . Source code only Instead of producing its own boxed set of UNIX, AT&T continued to only sell source code and to make it available equally to all licensees. Each company would then port UNIX to its own equipment. It wasn t until about 1992, when the lab was spun off as a joint venture with Novell (called Univel) and then eventually sold to Novell, that a commercial boxed set of UNIX (called UnixWare) was produced directly from that source code. . Published interfaces To create an environment of fairness and community to its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), AT&T began standardizing what different ports of UNIX had to be able to do to still be called UNIX. To that end, compliance with POSIX standards and the AT&T UNIX System V Interface Definition (SVID) were specifications UNIX vendors could use to create compliant UNIX systems. Those same documents also served as road maps for the creation of Linux. In an early e-mail newsgroup post from Linus Torvalds, Linux makes a request for a copy, preferably online, of the POSIX standard. I think that nobody from AT&T expected someone to actually be able to write their own clone of UNIX from those interfaces without using any of its UNIX source code. . Technical approach Again, until the very end of USL, most decisions on the direction of UNIX were made based on technical considerations. Management was promoted up through the technical ranks, and there was never any talk that I heard of writing software to break other companies software or otherwise restrict the success of USL s partners. Note
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