Bob Donnell wrote: > 30 years seems a stretch - since I think Linux first saw the light of the > Internet in about 1992. Let's see - 30 years ago - that's just after people > started pirating paper tapes of Microsoft Basic... <grin> > In the sense that Linux is Unix, it does go back 30 years or more.
There are bit's and pieces of VMS and Unix buried in Windows. Some clearly identified and settled out of court. Others copied & implemented in a way that had Digital or ATT used software patents like modern companies do would be in violation. The main designers of Windows NT (which the core engine moved into consumer windows at W2K) were key VMS architects recruited from Digital. Software patents & IP were not handled the same way then, and if that had occurred under current ground rules it would have required licensing or bloody lawsuits. Even pre-windows, there are bit's and pieces of IBM & Digital code which were copied/implemented in MS LanManager. Again, some settled out of court, some tolerated in the name of interoperation. What we now consider MSFT networking (SMB) was really an IBM invention, and was implemented on other OS's prior to MSFT implementing in DOS and later windows. And once implemented was not licensed cleanly. This whole topic is an area that has some pretty clear history & documentation. To the point that the majority of perceived MSFT "innovations" were actually acquisitions, licensed or outright copied from others. There have been innovations done by MSFT, just not the volume or same ones that folks typically think of. Have fun, Alan km4ba
