Unix conspiracy
: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. --ESR]
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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