[net.unix-wizards] MSDOS/UNIX Sources

Wang Zeep <G.ZEEP%MIT-EECS@MIT-MC.ARPA> (01/16/85)

1)  MSDOS 2.0 and up have big chunks written in C. (Just FYI)

2)  Why don't 40-80 hackers get together, sign incorporation papers,
get a contract with AT&T as a company and split the cost of the source
license.  Call yourself a consulting consortium or something.  While
this solution may be a bit unwieldy, anyone who has experience in hacking
the internals of UNIX can make lots of money as a consultant and could
easily make back the $40K total in 2-3 days each!

		[yet another modest proposal]
		wz
-------

chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuqui Q. Koala) (01/18/85)

>2)  Why don't 40-80 hackers get together, sign incorporation papers,
>get a contract with AT&T as a company and split the cost of the source
>license.  Call yourself a consulting consortium or something.  While
>this solution may be a bit unwieldy, anyone who has experience in hacking
>the internals of UNIX can make lots of money as a consultant and could
>easily make back the $40K total in 2-3 days each!

AT&T licensing is on a per CPU license. Those 40-80 hackers all need to be
able to share a single computer, or do something to allow multiple CPU's
(#2 is, I believe $16K, #3-n $1k under contractors provisions). Otherwise,
you're STILL illegal.

You know, I remember way back in the good old days when we talked about
technical issues in unix-wizards. I'm glad the net is working so well now
we don't need to anymore....
-- 
From the ministry of silly talks:		Chuq Von Rospach
{allegra,cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui  nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Vote for the fascist of your choice, but vote!

tim@callan.UUCP (Tim Smith) (01/25/85)

In article <2229@nsc.UUCP> chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuqui Q. Koala) writes:
>AT&T licensing is on a per CPU license. Those 40-80 hackers all need to be
>able to share a single computer, or do something to allow multiple CPU's
>(#2 is, I believe $16K, #3-n $1k under contractors provisions). Otherwise,
>you're STILL illegal.
>

How are multi-CPU computers gonna fit in?  Will it really cost
more to get a source license for an N cpu system, when they
are running as one computer?

Imagine the kludges needed for a company that can only afford one
source license!  I can see it now...

open( some args... )
{
	.
	.
	.
	if ( ip->st_mode & S_SRCFILE )
		p->p_srccnt++;
	.
	.
}

sched()
{
	.
	.
	if ( p->p_srccnt )
		if ( available[SRCCPU] == NO )
			goto schedloop;		/*
						 * Every vital kernel routine
						 * is required to have a goto!
						 */
		else
			cpu = SRCCPU;
	else
		cpu = select_cpu();
	.
	.
}

:-)

And how do networks fit in?  The machines I am on at Callan are
hooked up with Ethernet.  When I am going to edit a source file,
I usually copy it from the development system to my office system.
I also compile it and test it on my office system.
Then, when I am done with it, I send it back and rm it from my system.
Is this a violation of the license?

And how about smart terminals?  Suppose I had an editor that down-
loaded the file to be edited into the terminal, and the editing
is done by the terminal, with the changes uploaded to the host?
Does this violate the license?
-- 
Duty Now for the Future
					Tim Smith
			ihnp4!wlbr!callan!tim or ihnp4!cithep!tim

jbn@wdl1.UUCP (01/28/85)

      Now that the Sun/Pyramid/Vax/Gould distributed file system is becoming
available, we are all going to need a lot fewer source licences.  Not to 
mention a lot less disk space.