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IP: more on minor nit re: 10 choices
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 07:09:12 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: Craig Partridge <craig () aland bbn com> Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 06:03:23 -0400 To: dgillmor () sjmercury com, dave () farber net, sob () das harvard edu Subject: minor nit re: 10 choices
5) The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds the University of California-Berkeley, to put TCP/IP into the Unix operating system originally developed by AT&T. Berkeley thereby created a full but low-cost network operating system, along with a full suite of network applications, that computer start-up companies flocked to use in their boxes. It was, says Bradner, ``a way to get into the networking game without spending a lot of money.'' So it spread fast.
Complex but minor error here. Simple form of the error: DARPA funded Berkeley, not NSF. A nice example of tech transfer from the military. The real story: DARPA funded BBN Technologies to put TCP/IP into BSD. Up to 4.1c BSD, it was the BBN TCP/IP in BSD. But Bill Joy didn't like the BBN code, so he completely rewrote it and put the version of the code we know into 4.1c just before heading out to found Sun Microsystems. I think this rewrite was done without DARPA approval. I do know that DARPA was funding two versions of BSD networking code (BBN's and Berkeley's) for the next few years and was sometimes annoyed about it. (Though my recollection is that the competition was good and probably improved the quality of the TCP code substantially). Craig former CSNET techie and the guy who inherited managing the BBN TCP project for its last two years or so in the late 1980s. ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: more on minor nit re: 10 choices Dave Farber (Sep 13)