[TUHS] the guy who brought up SVr4 on Sun machines

[Larry McVoy]

On Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 06:02:51PM +0100, Joerg Schilling wrote:
> Larry McVoy <lm at mcvoy.com> wrote:
> 
> > > Note that the Svr4 kernel was derived from the SunOS-4.0 kernel.
> >
> > I was in the kernel group at Sun at the time.  The pictures I posted
> > are of the guy that did the bring up.
> >
> > In no way was SVr4 even remotely derived from the SunOS 4.0 kernel.
> 
> I cannot confirm this at all.
> 
> I have access to both SunOS-4.x and Solaris sources and it is obvious that the 

I'm not sure how you have legal access to the SunOS 4.x code.  I'd love a
copy of that source but so far as I know it's locked up.

> SVr4 and Solaris kernel code is very similar. 

Sure it's similar.  The process was:

	untar the SVr4 code
	take anything useful from the SunOS code
	try and make it compat

If you want to call that derived from that's your call.  In my mind "derived
from" would mean start with the SunOS code and make it SVr4 compat.  That
is *not* what AT&T paid $200M to have happen.  They knew that System V was
a non-starter and they wanted all the SunOS goodness in System V.