How much of 2bsd src could be "free?"

Steven M. Schultz sms at lonex.radc.af.mil
Sat Nov 17 15:16:11 AEST 1990


In article <1990Nov15.165900.3481 at watmath.waterloo.edu> kcwellsch at watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Wellsch) writes:
>How much of 2bsd could be available free like what has been happening
>with 4.3BSD-4.4BSD?  I suspect the ever dwindling number of 11's out
>there makes the hassles of verifying with AT&T what is not "AT&T code"
>is not worth the bother.  Too bad, I don't have a source license.

	alas, not much.  there are bits and pieces of the kernel (mostly
	in the networking area) and a number of the applications (ftp, rsh, 
	rcp, login, and so on) which i've ported from the 'liberated'
	4.3 sources - but no where near enough to even begin to build
	a system with.  also, even 4.4 isn't rid of the scourge of AT&T
	(yet) the last i heard.

	even if a port were done to the 11 of a "liberated" Unix(tm) i 
	doubt the 11'ers could afford the lawyers to proof it.

	*sigh*  cities, states, countries recognize "historical landmarks"
	and grant all manner of special privileges, etc - it would sure
	be nice if the source license restriction would be lifted or eased
	for those who want to use the machine that played a major role in the
	life of Unix.  Any resemblance of the current Unix on a pdp11 to 
	what it was when at&t "supported" the pdp11 (didn't even implement UMR
	handling) is unlikely, but the restrictions remain in place.

	oh, i just took delivery of my own 11/73 yesterday - nifty machine!

	Steven M. Schultz
	sms at wlv.imsd.contel.com (TDY at sms at lonex.radc.af.mil)



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