# Which is the oldest unix like free system?



## cola (Nov 27, 2010)

Which is the oldest unix like free system?


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## graudeejs (Nov 27, 2010)

Maybe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minix (if by saying Free you mean Open Source)
EDIT:
Nope
Probably BSD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution


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## UNIXgod (Nov 27, 2010)

The clone wars didn't start till the 90's!

look at hurd for gnu and http://www.386bsd.org/ for bsd


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## ckester (Nov 27, 2010)

cola, the questions you've been asking make me wonder if you're writing a book or something like that?


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## rbelk (Nov 28, 2010)

Let one of the oldie's repeat a wise saying. Actually MULTICS is UNIX like because UNIX is  MULTICS like. Check out MULTICS history at it's Wikipedia entry. But of course it wasn't free.

Sorry guys & gals, I just couldn't resist!


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## graudeejs (Nov 28, 2010)

Ye, but was it Free (and/or OpenSource)?


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## rbelk (Nov 28, 2010)

Killasmurf, it wasn't free or opensource either. I was just giving a little history for Cola's book.


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## wblock@ (Nov 28, 2010)

rbelk said:
			
		

> Killasmurf, it wasn't free or opensource either. I was just giving a little history for Cola's book.



That's a fascinating piece of history, the CISC of operating systems versus Unix's RISC.
Incidentally, MULTICS is now open source.  And there's a Honeywell 6180 emulator to run it on...


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## oliverh (Nov 28, 2010)

Free doesn't mean you don't have to pay for something. Yes BSD was free and the source was open. Forget about terms like "free software" or "open source", software was indeed free long time ago. At that time, you got the application as source code and you could modify and distribute it.

A little UNIX history

http://www.levenez.com/unix/

And something about the development of BSD:

http://www.oreilly.de/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html


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## ckester (Nov 28, 2010)

oliverh said:
			
		

> Free doesn't mean you don't have to pay for something. Yes BSD was free and the source was open. Forget about terms like "free software" or "open source", software was indeed free long time ago. At that time, you got the application as source code and you could modify and distribute it.



That was before I got interested in computers, but I do remember hearing something like that.  Software was the "sweetener" they threw in to make the hardware sale.


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