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Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins

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On 2025-10-29 18:43, rbowman wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:45:45 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
> 
>> 	Copied to my clipboard then used the editor to correct the line
> break.
>>
>> <https://thenewstack.io/ken-thompson-recalls-unixs-rowdy-lock-picking-
> origins/>
>>
>> 	Old eyes at least in this person sometimes miss such subleties
>> in small print.
>> 	That is an interesting article by the way.
> 
> Yeah, those were the days.
> 
> "Thompson credits Richard Stallman with developing much more of the open
> source philosophy. “But Unix had a bit of that.” Maybe it grew out of what
> Dennis Ritchie was remembering, that fellowship that formed around Unix.
> “For some reason, and I think it’s just because of me and Dennis,
> everything was open…”
> 
> It was just the way they operated. “We had protection on files — if you
> didn’t want somebody to read it, you could set some bits and then nobody
> could read them, right? But nobody set those permissions on anything … All
> of the source was writable, by anybody! It was just open …"
> 
> While I appreciate some of the work of the FSF Stallman's talmudic
> legalisms rub me the wrong way. I remember when 'it was just open'.


I just read the article, and I have to say that it happened because of 
the culture in Bell Labs, and that money was not a problem. And they had 
that money because the Bell company had that monopoly on phone service 
and charged what they charged.

Unix had that open mind because Bell Lab worked with an open mind. Other 
teams there invented things that later the entire world benefited from, 
like the transistor or the chip. Bell had some limitation about not 
patenting and withholding things they could not directly use on phones.


-- 
Cheers, Carlos.
ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-28 20:03 +0000
  Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-28 14:10 -0700
    Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Allodoxaphobia <trepidation@example.net> - 2025-10-28 22:43 +0000
      Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-29 01:45 +0000
        Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-10-28 20:45 -0700
          Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-29 17:43 +0000
            Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2025-10-29 14:01 -0400
              Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-30 02:45 +0000
            Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-10-29 22:00 -0400
              Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-30 03:00 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-30 08:12 -0700
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-30 20:19 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2025-10-31 03:00 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-10-30 23:48 -0400
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-31 08:33 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-10-31 04:43 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-31 09:02 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-10-31 08:59 -0700
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-31 20:24 +0000
              Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-11-01 03:40 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-01 00:45 -0400
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-11-02 03:15 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-01 23:35 -0400
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-02 11:25 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-02 21:08 +0100
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-02 21:51 +0000
            Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-10-31 14:33 +0100
              Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-10-31 23:16 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-01 05:41 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-01 02:18 -0400
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-P  icking Origins vallor <vallor@vallor.earth> - 2025-11-01 07:06 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-P  icking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-02 01:44 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-02 01:34 +0000
                Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-01 14:50 +0100
    Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-10-28 22:59 +0000
      Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-10-30 01:29 -0400
        Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-30 06:25 +0000
        Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-30 06:59 +0000
    Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-10-29 02:54 +0000
      Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-10-29 17:32 +0000
        Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-01 10:30 +0000
    Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-10-29 11:22 +0000
    Re: Ken Thompson Recalls Unix’s Rowdy, Lock-Picking Origins Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-10-30 22:45 +0000

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