unix conspiracy

2 definitions found

unix conspiracy - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Unix conspiracy
  
     [ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among
     ITS and TOPS-20 fans, Unix's growth is the result of a
     plot, hatched during the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was
     to hobble AT&T's competitors by making them dependent upon a
     system whose future evolution was to be under AT&T's control.
     This would be accomplished by disseminating an operating
     system that is apparently inexpensive and easily portable, but
     also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require
     continuing upgrades from AT&T).  This theory was lent a
     substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the
     back door entry.
  
     In this view, Unix was designed to be one of the first
     computer viruses (see virus) - but a virus spread to
     computers indirectly by people and market forces, rather than
     directly through disks and networks.  Adherents of this "Unix
     virus" theory like to cite the fact that the well-known
     quotation "Unix is snake oil" was uttered by DEC president
     Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively promoting its
     own family of Unix workstations.  (Olsen now claims to have
     been misquoted.)
  

unix conspiracy - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  Unix conspiracy
   n.
  
     [ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among ITS and
     TOPS-20 fans, Unix's growth is the result of a plot, hatched during
     the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was to hobble AT&T's competitors
     by making them dependent upon a system whose future evolution was to
     be under AT&T's control. This would be accomplished by disseminating
     an operating system that is apparently inexpensive and easily
     portable, but also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to
     require continuing upgrades from AT&T). This theory was lent a
     substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the back  door
  
     entry.
  
     In this view, Unix was designed to be one of the first computer
     viruses (see virus) -- but a virus spread to computers indirectly
  by
     people and market forces, rather than directly through disks and
     networks. Adherents of this `Unix virus' theory like to cite the fact
     that the well-known quotation "Unix is snake oil" was uttered by
  DEC
     president Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively promoting
     its own family of Unix workstations. (Olsen now claims to have been
     misquoted.)
  
     If there was ever such a conspiracy, it got thoroughly out of the
     plotters' control after 1990. AT&T sold its Unix operation to Novell
     around the same time Linux and other free-Unix distributions were
     beginning to make noise.