You are absolutely correct. You could download Unix from the University of California, Berkeley and install that operating system on your own computer for free. Of course, it would take you hours to download the software, and Unix was not easy to configure for your specific computer.
Linux came along and copied that free UCB software onto CDs and sold it as an easy to install package for PC computers.
The rest is history.
Why was UNIX free from the University of California? It's development was funded with government funds. The majority of the operating system functions would be classified as "shareware" today and were written by private individuals.
The UNIX operating system that we see today, was a group effort. If some smart individual created a new program like "ls" to give a text list of the directories, then it would be incorporated into the basic package. That is why you have such strange sounding and unusual commands such as; ls, grep, ping, and others.
This would be like downloading each and every software package available from www.shareware.com and packaging it as a new operating system.
The basic kernel is what UNIX is all about. It and been, and is, simply outstanding and does it's job very well. Everything else is just shareware and hype.
Today, I sadly shake my head when I listen to this Linux v Microsoft debate.
You are absolutely correct. You could download Unix from the University of California, Berkeley and install that operating system on your own computer for free. Of course, it would take you hours to download the software, and Unix was not easy to configure for your specific computer.
Linux came along and copied that free UCB software onto CDs and sold it as an easy to install package for PC computers.
Do you even have the slightest idea of the history of either UNIX or Linux? If you did, and you saw the sort of statements you made, you would have the same reaction that I did... "Is this person on drugs?!?!?!"
You need to do a bit of research on the whole thing... The source distributions (ATT v6, v7, SYS III, SYS IV) and the BSD revisions, and how they got the original ATT source code, and the different licensing issues. And don't forget the fact that BSDI has licensed a single version for i386 distribution from the regents of UC @ Berkeley, and it's NOT free! However, there are OS BSD versions avaiable, such as OpenBSD and FreeBSD, and both do have portions of the BSD source that have been released, but again, they're from earlier versions of the source.
Finally, LINUX IS NOT BSD UNIX!!!It may look a little bit like it, but that's saying that there's no difference between a Ford and a Chevy. They both do the same thing, and they even sort of look alike, but they're NOT the same.
Mark