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Re: A bit of BSD history question


From: W B Hacker <wbh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2006 18:09:03 +0800

Sascha Wildner wrote:
elekktretterr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I know a bit about the BSD OS history, however Ive been wondering lately,
what or who had made the initiative in the BSD community of developers to
free and open the source? Any influences from GNU and R. Stallman or
something like that?


BSD is older than GNU and R. Stallman's misconception of "free".

*snip*


Definitely so.

IIRC, the BSD license is derived in part from the earlier MIT license.

The sharing environment that gave rise to these predates Stallman's birth, let alone his GNU project.

For most of their first 20 years of life, computers and software were largely defense-related animals, often secret, just as their analog predecessors had been. No one else had the money, or saw much need for 'puters that needed their own adjacent lake for cooling!

Accordingly, many of the software pioneers worked at one time or another for both Bell Labs and one or more of the major universities, Berkeley included - often on US Government funded projects or research grants.

Those of us who used light guns on AN/FSQ-7 (1950's technology) or light pens on AN/GSA-51 (1960's technology) tend to smile when the Xerox PARC/ Apple argument resurfaces over where the 'mouse' came from. Both had been derived from WWII-vintage technology.

Bill Hacker



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