theseus@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (David E Reed) (02/07/91)
I have seen a few postings here in comp.unix.wizards about reading the source. I have a question? Where can one find UNIX source code? I am aware that in the past, UNIX was freely distributed to colleges and universities. But then AT&T copyrighted it and I have asked several people around here and no one knows where to find the source. I am really interested in reading it, but as I said where can I find a copy? I thank you all in advance for your recommendations. One spuriuos comment, even though I read the net regularly, it is sometimes lmost easier to read my mail. (I have one of the nastiest (static-wise) modems)So, if you want I wouldn't mind a reply to my mail...Theseus@jhunix. Once again, thanx. Theseus ------------- "If we give everything enough time, we might find that it is alive" - a half-crazy, yet brilliant biology professor.
rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) (02/07/91)
In article <7496@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> theseus@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (David E Reed) writes: >I have seen a few postings here in comp.unix.wizards about reading the source. Since I mentioned it, I will explain what I meant. Some sources get scarcer, others proliferate. Youngsters aren't likely to ever look at "real" source hoarded by vendors. However, there is other stuff around. Public domain source. Freed source from the Berkeley distributions. GNU sources. Perhaps Mach source. Keep in mind that some is more readable than others, however. And some programs are so hacked over as to be unreadable, altho they do something something useful and difficult, so no one bothers to fix or rewrite them. They are just treated like black boxes. -- Root Boy Jim Cottrell <rbj@uunet.uu.net> I got a head full of ideas They're driving me insane
guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) (02/08/91)
>I have seen a few postings here in comp.unix.wizards about reading the source. > I have a question? Where can one find UNIX source code? I am aware that >in the past, UNIX was freely distributed to colleges and universities. >But then AT&T copyrighted it Umm, well, that's not *quite* what happened. UNIX was sold to educational sites, in source form, for a low cost; however, even then, it was considered trade secret code by AT&T, so those sites weren't supposed to freely distribute UNIX source to *other* sites unless those other sites also had AT&T source licenses. I don't know that AT&T copyrighting the UNIX source affected that; AT&T was also increasing the cost of educational source licenses over time, but that was happening even before they copyrighted the source. I *think* educational source licenses may still be available at relatively low cost, although the cost is higher than it was. >and I have asked several people around here and no one knows where to >find the source. I'd be *extremely* surprised if JHU didn't have at least one UNIX source license. Try asking around a little more widely... >I am really interested in reading it, ...and also be aware that, over time, UNIX has gotten bigger, so there's more source to read; you may want to select which bits you actually want to read.