Читать книгу Linux Bible - Christopher Negus - Страница 23

Before the AT&T divestiture in 1984, when it was split up into AT&T and seven “Baby Bell” companies, AT&T was forbidden to sell computer systems. Companies that would later become Verizon, Qwest, Nokia, and Alcatel-Lucent were all part of AT&T. As a result of AT&T's monopoly of the telephone system, the US government was concerned that an unrestricted AT&T might dominate the fledgling computer industry.

Because AT&T was restricted from selling computers directly to customers before its divestiture, UNIX source code was licensed to universities for a nominal fee. This allowed UNIX installations to grow in size and mindshare among top universities. However, there was still no UNIX operating system for sale from AT&T that you didn't have to compile yourself.