Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!pyramid!thirdi!peter From: peter@thirdi.UUCP (Peter Rowell) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Unix technical & commercial considerations Message-ID: <437@thirdi.UUCP> Date: 18 Oct 88 16:26:47 GMT References: Reply-To: peter@thirdi.UUCP (Peter Rowell) Organization: Third Eye Software, Menlo Park, CA Lines: 38 In a previous article, andrew@jung.harlqn.uucp (Andrew Watson) writes: >I've used both System V.1/2/3 and BSD 4.2 (vanilla, SunOS, Ultrix) extensively, >and honestly prefer the latter, and I'm still curious to know the reasons >behind the decisions of the likes of HP, DG, TI, Intergraph &c to go with >System V not 4.2. Is it really just the licencing minefield surrounding the >Berkeley version? Can someone cast some light on this? Actually it's quite simple - once you accept that not all decisions are based on purely technical considerations. In this case, the various manufacturers must decide to offer either BSD (maintained by "whoever hasn't graduated yet") or System V (maintained by "The Inventors of UNIX and a major Fortune 50 corporation"). The existence of BSD and SysV has created a type of tension. SysV has given apparent stability to the code and real credibility to the future of UNIX in the "real world". BSD has been what university projects have always been - where the cowboys hang out. They can get more than a little rowdy, try out a new dance step or two, and if they break the mirror in the back of the bar..... welllllll boys (and girls?) will be boys..... The funny thing is, I believe the BSD releases have been more solid at initial release than the System V ("commercial quality") stuff has been. The upcoming System V.4 may very well mark the end of this basic tension. AT&T is finally admitting the "kids" from Berkely might have a few good ideas and the people at Berkeley South (== Sun) are accepting that they need the increased commercial credibility created by kissing GrandMa in public. Never fear - with OSF, POSIX, X/Open, etc. we will have plenty of "friendly" debate to keep things interesting and (hopefully) moving forwards (or sideways or ???). "The great thing about UNIX standards is that there are so many to choose from!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Rowell Third Eye Software, Inc. (415) 321-0967 Menlo Park, CA 94025 ...!pyramid!thirdi!peter