VanLUG Email Archive
> Curt Sampson <
> wrote:
>
> > I can't see the USL lawsuit affecting Linux using the FFS or TCP/IP
> > code, since all of that was exclusively Berkeley code. On the other
> > hand, I guess I can understand other folks being chilled anyway,
> > even though the code wasn't contested in the lawsuit. So that
> > explains a bit of the perceived NIH.
>
> The lawsuit etc hadn't much to do with Linus not using BSD code IIRC..
You don't recall correctly. This was a major issue in c.o.l.m (or was
it still c.o.l) probably around 1993.
The parties to the USL lawsuit had to determine what BSD code was
covered by USL's licensing. Until that was settled the Linux people
wouldn't use BSD code in the kernel. We started to see BSD code when
4.4BSD-lite was released once the USL issue was settled.
> I've been around since about 0.9.1-p7 (or something, it was a while ago... :)
> and I never heard anything about that. What I did hear however, was that
> Linus created the first draft of what later known as 'Linux', was that
> he wrote it to see if he could (and because he loathed minix :)...
And Linus also stated early on that Linux would never have been
created had 386BSD come out a few months earlier.
-- Toomas Losin ParaLynx Internet
New Westminster, BC