I've read that AT&T developed Unix under US Government grant (DARPA
Project) which is why they couldn't sell it.

George


AZ Pete wrote:
> 
> Go here for full history:
> http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/
> 
> Here is a snippet:
> 
> In 1976-77, Ken Thompson took a six-month sabbatical from Bell Labs to
> teach as a visiting professor at the Computer Science Department at the
> University of California-Berkeley (UCB). What he taught, of course, was
> the UNIX system. While there, he also developed much of what eventually
> became Version 6.
> 
> The system was an instant hit, and the word spread quickly throughout
> the academic community.
> 
> When Thompson returned to Bell Labs, students and professors at
> Berkeley continued to enhance UNIX. Eventually, many of these
> enhancements were incorporated into what became known as Berkeley
> Software Distribution (BSD) Version 4.2, which many other universities
> also bought.
> 
> UNIX had been distributed via academic licenses, which were relatively
> inexpensive, and government and commercial licenses from about 1975.
> UCB became important in spreading the word about UNIX when it
> established a Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG), originally under
> the direction of Robert Fabry. The CSRG obtained a grant from DARPA to
> support a version of UNIX for DARPA contractors, which were mostly
> academic and military organizations, and some commercial firms. Ritchie
> recalled, "The contractors got the UNIX licenses from Bell Labs, but
> they got the BSD software from Berkeley." ...
> 
> <snip>
> 
> ...As UNIX spread throughout the academic world, businesses eventually
> became aware of UNIX from their newly hired programmers who had used it
> in college.
> 
> Soon a new business opportunity developed -- writing programs to run on
> UNIX for commercial use. What made UNIX popular for business
> applications was its timesharing, multitasking capability, permitting
> many people to use the mini- or mainframe; its portability across
> different vendor's machines; and its e-mail capability.
> 
> In 1984, AT&T divested itself of its local Bell telephone companies,
> and also created an independent subsidiary, AT&T Computer Systems. The
> creation of the subsidiary enabled the communications giant to enter
> the computer business. The new subsidiary marketed a number of computer
> products, including the UNIX operating system. Its software flagship
> was System 5, which ran on AT&T's 3B series of computers.
> ...
> 
> Hope this helps
> Peter
> 
> --- Mark Phillips <phillips@usa.net> wrote:
> > I thought UNIX was first developed at UC Berkley, and then moved to
> > AT&T??
> >
> > Mark
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> > [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Jim
> > Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 9:45 AM
> > To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> > Subject: History question
> >
> >
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > I know that Unix was developed by AT&T in the early '70s.  My
> > question is
> > why
> > was Unix originally free?  Certainly AT&T knew the value of the
> > product that
> > they were creating.  Any helpful links lurking out there in the minds
> > of
> > PLUG
> > members?
> > - --
> > Jim
> >
> > Freedom is worth preserving
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: PGP 6.5.8
> >
> > iQA/AwUBPIeZFSsk3ywszI1FEQIjgwCeISYOGv6y43K+aqZtSoHsStHQxOIAoJ3N
> > SnSvKgaNGIm06WXelSGUcXtL
> > =cnQf
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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