What's clear as you read through the early documentation and accounts of the UNIX system is that
the development was a free-flowing process, lacked ego, and was dedicated to making UNIX excel-
lent. This process led to a sharing of code (both inside and outside of Bell Labs) that allowed rapid
development of a high-quality UNIX operating system. It also led to an operating system that AT&T
would find difficult to reel back in later.
To a Commercialized UNIX
Before the AT&T divestiture in 1984, when it was split up into AT&T and seven "baby Bell" compa-
nies, AT&T was forbidden to sell computer systems. Companies you now know by names such
as Verizon, Qwest, and Lucent Technologies were all part of AT&T. As a result of AT&T's monopoly
of the telephone system, the U.S. government was concerned that an unrestricted AT&T might
dominate the fledgling computer industry.
Because AT&T was restricted from selling computers directly to customers before its divestiture,
UNIX source code was licensed to universities for a nominal fee. There was no UNIX operating
system for sale from AT&T that you didn't have to compile yourself.
BSD Arrives
In 1975, UNIX V6 became the first version of UNIX available for widespread use outside of Bell
Laboratories. From this early UNIX source code, the first major variant of UNIX was created at
University of California at Berkeley. It was named the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).
For most of the next decade, the BSD and Bell Labs versions of UNIX headed off in separate direc-
tions. BSD continued forward in the free-flowing, share-the-code manner that was the hallmark of
the early Bell Labs UNIX, while AT&T started steering UNIX toward commercialization. With the
formation of a separate UNIX Laboratory, which moved out of Murray Hill and down the road to
Summit, New Jersey, AT&T began its attempts to commercialize UNIX. By 1984, divestiture was
behind AT&T and it was ready to really start selling UNIX.
UNIX Laboratory and Commercialization
The UNIX Laboratory was considered a jewel that couldn't quite find a home or a way to make a
profit. As it moved between Bell Laboratories and other areas of AT&T, its name changed several
times. It is probably best remembered by its last name, which it had as it began its spin-off from
AT&T: UNIX System Laboratories (USL).
The UNIX source code that came out of USL, the legacy of which is now owned in part by Santa
Cruz Operation (SCO), has been used as the basis for ever-dwindling lawsuits by SCO against
major Linux vendors (such as IBM and Red Hat, Inc.). Because of that, I think the efforts from
USL that have contributed to the success of Linux are sometimes disrespected.
You have to remember that, during the 1980s, many computer companies were afraid that a newly
divested AT&T would pose more of a threat to controlling the computer industry than would an
11
Starting with Linux
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