Maybe there's a generation / technology gap here. But from history, it doesn't seem like there was much free - though most did indeed to be open - I suppose much like the VMS model. At least not until the 80s (or maybe bash predates that trend).

The C language might've been free, but I wonder if there were any free compilers until gcc (hell I remember pirating Borland). Even most copies of *BSD were mainly sold on CD vs downloaded until 10 years or so ago (even though it was technically free - not including BSDi)

On Mar 20, 2017 7:28 PM, "Doug McIlroy" <doug@cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> The hippie mentality had a lot of influence on everyone in that
> generation - including the computer nerds/hackers.

I'm not sure what hippie attributes you had in mind, but one
candidate would be "free and open". In software, though, free
and open was the style of the late 50s. By the hippie heyday
p
p