[TUHS] Why BSD didn't catch on more, and Linux did

[Clem Cole]

On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 2:21 PM, Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> I wonder why the unchallenged existence of Unix clones like COHERENT and
> Minix wasn't enough to kill the trade secret argument before it even got
> out of the gate.
>
It was a V7 clone (like Minix).  I've forgotten but I thought it originally
ran on 286 (again like Minix).
​But, ​
I'm not sure why it was not as popular.  Maybe the difference was that it
was a V7 clone and closed source as it were
​, while ​
Minix was a tad cheaper and you got the sources.
​  Also it (again like Minix) was floppy based.  By that time AT&T UNIX or
BSD Unix is running on 'JAWS' [just another workstation] those systems
tended to have disks in them and UNIX really need one in practice.   As Ted
points out and I agree (as pointed out by Jolitiz in his DDJ articles, I
was partly responsible for the original BSD/386 hard disk driver)​, the
Linux support for ST506 and ESDI disks was very early and actually pretty
stable in the earliest versions of Linux.   In fact, because I was
familiar
​with the HD stuff from BSD/386 it was one the first things I had
personally checked out and was pleased to see was solid.​




>
> Clem, is your paper online somewhere?
>
​Not yet - I'll send out an URL when the conference papers all go on line,
but if you privately send me a message I'll send you a PDF.  Note, a couple
of you have an earlier (near final) draft, so send me a note if you want
the printed one.   The differences are minor-> some clarification/some
small rewording to dealing with English colloquialisms that were not
understood by the French. ​


ᐧ
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