[TUHS] Government-Issue UNIX?

[Stuff Received via TUHS]

On 2025-10-09 01:28, Tom Perrine via TUHS wrote:
> KSOS - for PDP-11 originally developed by Ford Aerospace, and then extended
> at Logicon. It did have a supervisor rmode UNIX system call compatible
> system. Later there was also a userland library that implemented something
> that mostly matched the UNIX system calls. It had no kernel code in common
> with UNIX. It was written in Modula.

Interesing -- what compilers did you use?

S.

> 
> KSOS was used in the Trusted Downgrade System of the multi-level-secure
> "all-source" intel fusion system that Logicon built for a few agencies.
> ACCAT-GUARD and USAFE-GUARD, for example.
> 
> KSOS-32 - a VAX "port" of KSOS (which was then retconned as "KSOS-11"). The
> Modula code from -11 was run though Emacs macros to produce Modula-2, and
> then parts were re-written as needed.
> 
> I worked on both systems at Logicon.
> 
> --tep
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 7:17 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.
>>