Closed vs. open source timeline.

[Stan Sieler]

Re:
> Andrew Back wrote:
> > Does anyone know if the history of closed/unavailable vs. open/available
> > source is documented anywhere? Ideally in a book or journal that can be
> > properly referenced.

Sorry for the late add-on ... based on the above and one other post, it
looks like you're willing to consider source code from the vendor, so I'd
add Burroughs Corporation.  The mainframe group (B6500/B6700/B7700/etc)
would send the source code out with each release of the operating system.
>From personal experience, I saw this happen from 1970 through 1979, and
suspect it happened at least somewhat before and after that period.

Also, for "available", Hewlett-Packard used to sell the source code for the
MPE operating system (on the Classic HP 3000) for $500 in the late 1970s 
and during the 1980s (I saw a copy purchased in 1977, and purchased a copy
circa 1986), and used to sell the source code for MPE XL (later MPE/iX)
operating system for about $30,000 in the mid/late 1980s and possibly the
1990s (I've talked to about three companies that purchased it), and used
to sell the source for HP-UX (at least in the mid-1990s) (I've talked to one
company that purchased it for HP-UX 10.20.)

Stan
-- 
Stan Sieler
sieler at allegro.com
www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html