XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net   
      
   In article <106uqej$36gll$3@dont-email.me>,   
   Thomas Koenig   wrote:   
   >Peter Flass  schrieb:   
   >   
   >> The support issues alone were killers. Think about the   
   >> Orange/Grey/(Blue?) Wall of VAX documentation, and then look at the   
   >> five-page flimsy you got with a micro. The customers were willing to   
   >> accept cr*p from a small startup, but wouldn't put up with it from IBM   
   >> or DEC.   
   >   
   >Using UNIX faced stiff competition from AT&T's internal IT people,   
   >who wanted to run DEC's operating systems on all PDP-11 within   
   >the company (basically, they wanted to kill UNIX).  They pointed   
   >towads the large amout of documentation that DEC provided, compared   
   >to the low amount of UNIX, as proof of superiority.  The UNIX people   
   >saw it differently...   
      
   I've never heard this before, and I do not believe that it is   
   true.  Do you have a source?   
      
   Bell Telephone's computer center was basically an IBM shop   
   before Unix was written, having written BESYS for the IBM 704,   
   for instance.  They made investments in GE machines around the   
   time of the Multics project (e.g., they had a GE 645 and at   
   least one 635).  The PDP-11 used for Unix was so new that they   
   had to wait a few weeks for its disk to arrive.   
      
   Unix escaped out of research, and into the larger Bell System,   
   via the legal department, as has been retold many times.  It   
   spread widely internally after that.  After divestiture, when   
   AT&T was freed to be able to compete in the computer industry,   
   it was seen as a strategic asset.   
      
   >But the _real_ killer application for UNIX wasn't writing patents,   
   >it was phototypesetting speeches for the CEO of AT&T, who, for   
   >reasons of vanity, did not want to wear glasses, and it was possible   
   >to scale the output of the phototoypesetter so he would be able   
   >to read them.   
   >   
   >After somebody pointed out that having confidential speeches on   
   >one of the most well-known machines in the world, where loads of   
   >people had dial-up access, was not a good idea, his secretary got   
   >her own PDP-11 for that.   
   >   
   >And with support from that high up, the project flourished.   
      
   While it is true that Charlie Brown's office got a Unix system   
   of their own to run troff because its output scaled to large   
   sizes, the speeches weren't the data they were worried about   
   protecting: those were records from AT&T board meetings.   
      
   At the time, the research PDP-11 used for Unix at Bell Labs was   
   not one of the, "most well-known machines in the world, where   
   loads of people had dial-up access" in any sense; in the grand   
   scheme of things, it was pretty obscure, and had a few dozen   
   users.  But it was a machine where most users had "root" access,   
   and it was agreed that these documents shouldn't be on the   
   research machine out of concern for confidentiality.   
      
   	- Dan C.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)