15 Jan
1999
15 Jan
'99
11:22 p.m.
Doug wrote:
ObCC: Around 1980 or so, I knew somebody with a
license plate that said
"Unix: Live Free or Die". Was this issued by Bell Labs? And who has one
they'd like to sell?
That was DEC, when they were first plugging Ultrix. It's basically a
New Hampshire license plate from the era. ("Live free or die" is the
New Hampshire state motto, the only notable quote from the commander
of the New Hampshire militia during the War of Independence, as a
commander be was otherwise ignored in the history books, as the New
Hampshire contingent wasn't big and flashy like the ones from the
populated states like Massachusetts and Virginia). There have been
several issues of that trade show souvenir, unfortunately I missed
the trade shows they were given out at (or was working a booth half a
mile away, back in the early days). I'd like one myself, though the
revolutionary spirit lives on more in Linux than in Unix (though I've
got my AT&T 7300s, my Sun 4/360 [that one helps me keep warm in my
basement computer room right now] and my Tandy 6000 as representatives
of closed-source Unix systems here (the SCO HDs are shelved at the
moment along with the AT&T SysV/386 ESDI drives, but either of those
flavors will also boot if I attach them to the right machines).
I'm told DEC has reissued the plates saying Linux instead of Unix, as
Linux has spurred the sale of a _lot_ of Alphas, and the company
actually cooperated when Maddog and others were doing the port. I
have no idea of the status under Compaq management.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
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