[TUHS] Government-Issue UNIX?

[Marc Donner via TUHS]

Well, BSD UNIX came out of the UC Berkeley CSRG, didn’t it?  And CSRG’s
funding was primarily from DARPA.  So I would call BSD a government-issued
version of UNIX.  What am I missing from your question?
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On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM segaloco via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:

> AT&T has had a variable relationship with governments over the years,
> especially the U.S.  On one hand, Bell Laboratories collaborated with
> the government and military on an number of projects such as the Nike
> Missile and TelStar.  On the other hand, the Bell System was under
> constant regulatory scrutiny that was eventually its undoing.
>
> Part of this has me wondering if there was ever an attempt by the U.S.
> or another government (that folks can discuss of course) to license with
> AT&T to create a government-issued version of UNIX.  Something that
> immediately comes to mind is the KSOS secure UNIX version developed by
> the DoD from what I know.  However, this would've been used internally,
> not something that the government would attempt to distribute en masse
> for day to day computer operations or directly to constituents.  Another
> system that comes to mind, tangentially related, are the state-sponsored
> versions of GNU/Linux found in China and North Korea.  Of course, AT&T
> doesn't factor in there because penguins, but still, it shows an
> interest in that sphere of influence also in providing a standardized
> operating system (to the benefit of users or state actors...unknown).
>
> Had this ever come up?  Has (as a matter of public record) any
> government attempted to buy a source license from AT&T for UNIX and then
> produce their own state-sanctioned UNIX flavor?  I would assume to
> produce KSOS, the DoD would've needed to hold one such source license,
> but that could be me being ignorant of special government contacts that
> exist in a wholly separate space from AT&T's commercial business.
>
> - Matt G.
>