Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 08:27:36 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Havard.Eidnes@runit.sintef.no Cc: seebs@plethora.net, FreeBSD-advocacy@freebsd.org, netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG, advocacy@openbsd.org Subject: Re: Document: What's the difference between Linux and BSD? Message-ID: <20000429082736.A79469@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <20000428140222P.he@runit.sintef.no> References: <20000427140242.M55780@freebie.lemis.com> <20000428140222P.he@runit.sintef.no>
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On Friday, 28 April 2000 at 14:02:22 +0200, Havard.Eidnes@runit.sintef.no wrote: >>> I would not call the BSD systems "derivatives of AT&T's UNIX". >>> In fact, the entire point of the Lite stuff is that there is >>> *no* derivation, in a legal/copyright sense, which is why BSD is >>> allowed to exist. >> >> I wasn't talking in a legal or copyright sense. A lot of the code >> in BSD is also in System V, and Research UNIX editions 8 to 10 >> were derived from 4.1cBSD. I think we can let this one stand. > > Well, that doesn't make BSD derived from AT&T UNIX -- in those cases > it's the other way around, isn't it? Well, that's a separate point. But the more important fact, as shown in http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/TUHS/Images/unixtimeline.gif (which doesn't show the correct derivation of the Eighth Edition), is that BSD was derived from the Sixth and Seventh Editions of AT&T Research UNIX. >>> If you compare AT&T UNIX(tm) to BSD, in practice, the systems >>> diverged from about V7 - BSD is more like V7 than it is like >>> System III or V. >> >> That's why :-) > > If you still want to claim that BSD is derived from AT&T UNIX, I > would probably add "research" between AT&T and UNIX, as in > > In fact, the BSD operating systems are open source derivatives of > AT&T's research UNIX operating system, not clones. That's more correct, yes, but the it would just confuse the target audience, and it's not strictly wrong as it stands. > However, at the moment, there is no AT&T code left in the freely > available BSDs, so what makes it then a derivative? The genealogy. > Won't this statement perpetuate the misunderstanding that the freely > available BSDs are still under threat of litigation from AT&T? Well, that's stated elsewhere. Greg -- Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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