Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!sdcsvax!darrell From: reggie@pdnbah.uucp (George Leach) Newsgroups: comp.os.research Subject: BTL research UNIXes Message-ID: <4156@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> Date: Thu, 22-Oct-87 12:43:07 EST Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.4156 Posted: Thu Oct 22 12:43:07 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 15:06:28 EST Sender: darrell@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU Organization: Paradyne Corporation, Largo, Florida Lines: 135 Approved: mod-os@sdcsvax.uucp In article <4125@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> you write: >School has started at most universities, so all researchers >should be back and available. It is time to revive >comp.os.research. > [DL raving ...] >... Certainly as >researchers we can't be content with the state of things: 4.4 >will be the last BSD, Bell Labs isn't releasing any of its >research UNIXes -- I'd like to hear from the (MACH | Sprite | >DASH | Clouds) folks about this. > Regarding BTL releasing any of its research UNIXes: Until about the middle of September I was employed by Bell Communications Research in good old New Jersey. Since the later half of 1983 I had been working with 8th Edition UNIX on a VAX 11/750 which we had kept under divestiture grandfather clauses. I doubt we have much claim to 9th Edition and beyond. I was also teaching at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in lovely Newark, NJ at the same time. Someone there once asked me about obtaining 8th Ed for use by NJIT. So I sent the following e-mail message to Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie to get the details. Their responses also follow: ____ ==> [ unzip here ] |____)-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8- I have been working with a pre-divestiture version of the 8th Edition UNIX and I understand that it has been supplanted by the 9th Edition (Gerard Holzmann refers to it in his article "PICO - A Picture Editor", AT&T Technical Journal). I was recently asked by a colleague of mine at the New Jersey Institute of Technology about the availability of the 9th Edition for university use. I understand that the 8th Edition was in use at some universities. So my question is in three parts. First, is the 9th Edition of UNIX available to universities? Second, on what hardware configurations is it currently supported? And third, given that the answer to the first question is yes, how would university representatives go about requesting a copy of the 9th Edition UNIX? Thank you for any information that you could provide to me regarding the 9th Edition UNIX. I realize your time is valuable and I don't wish to take up too much of it. George W. Leach Bell Communications Research Piscataway, New Jersey PS: The machine indra was moved to a new building some time ago and the return connection may not be updated, so you can try routing the return mail thru "bellcore!indra!reggie". ____ ==> [ unzip here ] |____)-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8- >From bellcore!research!bwk Sat Aug 15 19:19:47 1987 Received: by bellcore.bellcore.com (smail2.5) id AA21407; 15 Aug 87 19:19:47 EDT (Sat) The 9th edition is really just a clean up of the 8th edition, with a much nicer manual. it runs only on vaxes, and there is a fairly convoluted booting process that requires some antique version of bsd if i understand it right. there are maybe a dozen universities that have it -- each licence requires a fair song and dance here, and some reason why we should go through the effort, since it is not automatic. i guess the right person to ask if there is a serious interest at NJIT is dennis ritchie, or perhaps doug mcilroy, who handled most of the shepherding through the release labrynth originally. ____ ==> [ unzip here ] |____)-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8- >From bellcore!research!dmr Tue Aug 11 02:16:04 1987 Received: by bellcore.bellcore.com (smail2.5) id AA27583; 11 Aug 87 02:16:04 EDT (Tue) Subject: 9th edition The system we currently use is indeed called the Ninth Edition (because we have made a new edition of the manual). However, we haven't gathered the energy to create a new distribution, for universities or anyone else. There are about 10 university licenses for the 8th edition; only about half use it actively. The 8th edition, as we have it, works only on the VAX. There has been some work done toward making it go on the Sun, but the people who did it seem far from wanting to let it escape, at least so far. In principle, it is quite possible for NJIT to get a V8 license. However, they should be warned that it takes a reasonably large amount of work to get it going (the bootstrapping procedures are pretty horrendous) and also a certain amount of dedication to keep it going. Although it will communicate with other systems over ethernet, etc., the mere fact that it is neither BSD nor System V means extra work to understand it and care for it. If I haven't frightened your colleague away, the formal license request should be sent to my director, Al Aho (rm 2C560, AT&T-BL, 600 Mountain Ave, Murray Hill NJ 07974). However, it is probably better if you have him or her get in touch with me first, so we can talk about what they want from the system. Dennis Ritchie ____ ==> [ unzip here ] |____)-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8- I passed this information on to the appropriate people at NJIT, but I have no idea if they ever took it any further or not. For a little more info on the Research UNIX see World UNIX & C, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1987, page 7. George W. Leach Paradyne Corporation {gatech,codas,ucf-cs}!usfvax2!pdn!reggie Mail stop LF-207 Phone: (813) 530-2376 P.O. Box 2826 Largo, FL 34649-2826 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com