Do You Know UNIX Secrets?

ESR writes "You can help stop the SCO attack on IBM and the Linux community. I'm looking for ways to prove that Unix trade secrets have been legally nullified. I want to know if you have ever had read access to proprietary Unix source code (not just binaries and documentation) under circumstances where either no non-disclosure agreement was required or whatever non-disclosure agreement you had was not enforced. To help out, see my No Secrets page."

Comments

Start with Lion's Unix Source Code commentary

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the book which shows the roots of Unix: Lion's Commentary on UNIX 6th Ed. with source code

Re:Start with Lion's Unix Source Code commentary

[MAXOMENOS]

I found this sentence rather interesting:

In 1998, the SCO company agreed to the publication of this book and everyone can now obtain it legally, for $29.95 (www.peer-to-peer.com).

Unix source code access

[nero4wolfe]

During the times I was involved with actual Unix source code (mid 1970's to mid 1980's) for three different employers (UCLA, SDC, Tektronix) there was nothing similar to a nda. The school or company just agreed to not give source code access to non-"employees", and "employees" agreed not to give access to others who hadn't agreed to the Bell license.
Within those terms, there was a lot of access. At the yearly conferences (which later became USENIX) there was a typically conference distribution tape. That tape was a mixture of "new" things, and modifications to the Unix kernel or Unix commands. To assure that everybody was "licensed", when you first became a member you submitted a copy of the signature page of the license.
During that time we went from V6 Unix, PWB Unix, V7 Unix, to 2BSD (pdp11) and 4BSD (vax).
Sharing went both ways of course. A number of changes/new cmds from other groups became part of the Official Bell release.
That sharing was a factor in the settlement of the USL vs UCBerkeley lawsuit, that ended in the free availability of the 386bsd work.

Ain't speaking for me

[The Mutant]

I was at Bell Labs for almost three years in the early 1980's, moving over to AT&T Information Systems after the court ordered breakup of AT&T in 1984 or so.

They were pretty laid back then; I may have signed an NDA but I certainly don't recall it. I do recall the usual W4 and Insurance BS but an NDA doesn't stick out.

And yes, I had almost full access to the source tree. IIRC, only some arcane kernel stuff wasn't available, being crafted in assembly. But given the corporate culture I have no doubt it was somehow accessable, but because it was processor / architecture specific, I never bothered looking for it. Plenty of stuff to look at and learn from at higher levels.

Source code was available to any member of technical staff and since it was my second job out of Uni I had a ball. I even dl'ed some source to my Osborne I so I could read it at my lesiure.

In fact I didn't realise how special it was at the time to have access to Unix source code until maybe five years later when I'd moved over to Wall Street.

The Street was ramping up sharply on tech in those days, and Unix (think Sun, NeXt and SGI workstations) was the only game in town since PCs were still pretty underpowered.

I remember someone asking me a question, and I told him to "grep for it". He looked at me cryptically, and then it hit me.

No way to grep Dude - they's binary distributions.

TIme to EXPOSE Novell - Another smoking gun

[NZheretic]

In 1993, Novell bought USL. USL and Univel became the Novell UNIX Systems Group. Novell transferred the UNIX trademark to X/Open (later to become The Open Group). In 1993, Novell bought AT&T's stake in USL. In 1995, Novell sold the UnixWare business to old SCO

BUT IN 1994 Novell who then fully owned UnixWare...From the Usenet Archives

Novell Brewing a New 32-Bit GUI Environment (PC Week)
From PC Week for April 25, 1994 by PC Week Staff

Novell Inc. is developing a low-cost, 32-bit multitasking operating environment based on a "freeware" version of Unix that sources said will run Windows, DOS, NetWare, and Unix applications.

Novell is expected to demonstrate the software -- which it is developing under tight security at an off-site warehouse -- to a few select users at next week's NetWorld+Interop trade show, said sources close to the Provo, Utah, company.

The new system, code-named Expose, is not a derivative of Novell's own UnixWare; it is based on Linux, a full-featured Unix clone for PCs that is distributed under a free GNU Public License, sources said. Linux 1.0, which shipped in March, runs on 386- and 486-based ISA and EISA computers.

Expose will be based on a graphical X Window System environment called Looking Glass, which Novell licensed from Visix Software Inc., of Reston, Va. It is expected to use an advanced 3-D desktop metaphor to allow users to easily navigate through it, sources said.

Expose "is not as much an applications environment as it is a front end to many environments, [including] NetWare, Unix, and Windows applications," said a source who has been briefed on the project. Users also will be able to run Expose as a front end to the Internet, possibly through the Mosaic GUI, sources said.

However, one source said development is in the early stages, and given Novell's track record, the project could be abandoned if it does not show strong promise.

Another source said Novell has already demonstrated Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite of Windows applications running on Expose. The source claimed the applications were running without a Windows emulator, even though Linux does not fully support Windows applications.

Novell's goal, sources said, is to quickly bring to market a graphical operating environment that would give PC users a lower-cost alternative to Windows. The environment would likely be priced below UnixWare's $249 price and possibly even lower than the $149.95 retail price asked for Windows.

"Ray [Noorda] would give it away if he could," said a source knowledgeable about the project.

The GNU license allows developers to use and modify the Linux code and sell it for any price the market will bear -- with the caveat that they must also distribute the Linux source code with their derivative products.

Some corporate NetWare users questioned the sagacity of Novell developing yet another graphical 32-bit operating system. "I'd hate to see them spend a whole lot of research resources on one more operating system," said Jim Queen, director of enterprise networking for Enron Corp., a Houston-based energy company with a large NetWare network. "If they have a vision for this thing, they'd better share it."

Another IS manager said he is still trying to get his company's current set of desktop operating systems to work together on a LAN. But although he doesn't want to deal with yet another contender, "I'll keep an open mind," said Lee Roth, LAN manager for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines Co. "If [Expose] gives me some new functionality, I'll consider it."

Did Novell, who at that time owned the Unixware source, put some of the code into GPL'ed Linux to remain compatable with UNIX binaries?

Time to dig up those old copies of Byte and PC Weekly.