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Home > Archive > Unix administration > December 2004 > UNIX Source?
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| Sorry if this is a repost but it didn't look like it posted the first time.
Is the UNIX source code free and Open Source or is it is secret?
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| Adam wrote:
> Sorry if this is a repost but it didn't look like it posted the first time.
Yes, this is a repost. Don't rely on your view of the newsgroup, there
may be a number of reasons why you don't see a post that you have just made.
>
> Is the UNIX source code free and Open Source or is it is secret?
UNIX is a standard set by The Open Group. If a particular
system/codebase passes the tests for that standard it may be submitted
for recognition as a UNIX. See http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix.html
for more info. The list of registered UNIXes by category is here:
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/catalog.htm
That part is no secret, but at least some of the source code for some
Unixes IS secret. OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD and DragonFlyBSD all publish
their source code, which is based on [theoretically] unencumbered code
from U.C. Berkeley, freely. Sun has been preparing to open up Solaris
UNIX for about 5 years and believes that they have sufficiently
unencumbered it to be able to do so relatively soon. Novell appears to
be hinting that they may have something to say about that since Sun's
codebase is partly BSD and partly SysV.
There is an ongoing debate and several lawsuits in progress about who
owns SysV code (and claims are being made against BSD code too, for that
matter!) and what parts and how much of it may be used by developers of
either free or proprietary code.
If that isn't sufficiently complicated for you the sealed settlement
from the USL vs Regents of U.C. Berkeley has recently been obtained
through the California freedom of information laws and has been
published at http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?...041126130302760
If this doesn't provide you with enough information to raise hundreds of
new questions then you're not really trying. {0^;)<
Lynn
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