The Unix Society

[Tim Bradshaw]

* Michael Sokolov wrote:
   
>> Keep it to systems which require a UNIX source license, then?
   
>    Yes!
   
No no no!  This is really bad.  We should not try and sit down and say
who or what we exclude and who or what we include.  There are hundreds
of Unix and Unix-related systems that ran or run on all sorts of
hardware: trying to define some arbitrary border is just bogus, and is
also pretty disturbing in various respects (`you over there, you're
running a 4.2BSD-derivative system with lots of non-bell/non-Berkeley
code in it on something that isn't even a vax, *you* can't talk to
*us* cos you're not pure enough, nah nah nah').

Let's just not stress about this stuff, and let anyone who is
interested in older Unixoid systems be involved.  The only logical
dividing line is the 16-bit/32-bit one -- really the PDP11/bigger
system one -- and even that is furry (where does 32v live, or the
interdata port, or ?).

It's not like the list is suddenly going to get taken over by people
trying to talk about Linux or Solaris or something: those poeple have
their own lists and are quite happy there.  If people ask
inappropriate questions they won't get answers (or will get polite
pointers to ask somewhere more apropriate).

As for name, I still like my own suggestion of `proper unix
preservation society', though I can see there may be copyright issues.

Most of all, can't we stop all this silly meta-discussion and actually
talk about real interesting stuff!  Here's a question I'd actually
like to know the answer to: have there been ports of Unix or Unix-like
systems to machines with non-power-of-2 word sizes or other `strange'
(by modern standards) machines?

--tim (who's running a 4.2BSD-derivative system with lots of non-bell/non-Berkeley
       code in it on something that isn't even a Vax.
       And is also on holiday, so won't be reading this stuff for a while)


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