[ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among {ITS} and
{TOPS-20} fans, Unix's growth is the result of a plot, hatched during
the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was to hobble AT&T's competitors
by making them dependent upon a system whose future evolution was to
be under AT&T's control. This would be accomplished by disseminating
an operating system that is apparently inexpensive and easily
portable, but also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to
require continuing upgrades from AT&T). This theory was lent a
substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the {back
door} entry.
In this view, Unix was designed to be one of the first computer
viruses (see {virus}) -- but a virus spread to computers indirectly
by people and market forces, rather than directly through disks and
networks. Adherents of this `Unix virus' theory like to cite the fact
that the well-known quotation "Unix is snake oil" was uttered by
{DEC} president Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively
promoting its own family of Unix workstations. (Olsen now claims to
have been misquoted.)
If there was ever such a conspiracy, it got thoroughly out of the
plotters' control after 1990. AT&T sold its Unix operation to Novell
around the same time {Linux} and other free-Unix distributions were
beginning to make noise.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {New Jersey}{replicator}{Unix}{Unix weenie}{virus}]