[TUHS] Re: Thoughts on Licenses

Bell’s Observation on Computer Classes has brought surprises - we’ve had some very popular new devices appear at the bottom end of the market and sell in the billions. Even 10yrs ago, I’d not have expected Apple to build their own Silicon & certainly not to make a high-performance system based on ARM. I’d expect more surprises will come, selling in huge numbers. An obvious application area is Networking + Storage, but many other possibilities exist. $10 interface for SATA drives to Ethernet would solve a lot of SOHO / SME storage problems, if only a local backup to the Cloud. MIT has produced ports of v6 for x86 & RISC-V - used for teaching purposes. <https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-public> <https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-riscv> Could a version of v6 or v7 run on a microcontroller? Perhaps. Not many versions of Linux run so leanly. If a product based on a microcontroller & v6/v7 became a very popular product, Copyright & Ownership might become an issue :( Even after the “SCO v IBM” case someone might see a payday. But why would anyone use "Version Zero" in what turned out to be quite a line of OS’s from Dept 1127 / CSRC?? Plan 9 or Inferno - born multi-processor, network aware and embedding 30+ years experience - would be the obvious platform for a “new small thing”. You’ve already covered on-list the Plan 9/ Inferno licensing, and there’s no impediment. While Vintage Cars are fascinating to gawk at and may be rewarding to repair & rebuild, they don’t include modern materials, designs, performance and safety. Fun for a hobby & special event, but not 1st choice for daily use. I think v6 on different platforms will have a very long life in a few areas, but is not what I’d choose for a commercial product. steve j -- Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915) PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin