From: lile@netcom.com (Lile Elam)
Subject: Re: AT&T sells USL to Novell
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 07:49:23 GMT

johnston@me.udel.edu (Bill Johnston) writes:

>Another tidbit for those of you who spent the last few 
>weeks fretting about Apple Computer's bid to buy Novell:  
>CNN just reported that AT&T has sold USL to Novell.

>There was no mention of the on-going litigation USL vs.
>BSD/386 and UC Berkeley, or of Apple's interest in Novell.
>-- 
>-- Bill Johnston (johnston@me.udel.edu)
>-- 38 Chambers Street; Newark, DE 19711; (302)368-1949

Well, blow me under! This is really amazing. I wonder if AT&T is
trying to cut it's losses before they happen. Actually, this is
quite confusing. I thought USL's main purpose in life was to bring
up litigation against other companies which would hopefully 
generate AT&T some money.


Which brings to mind an interesting confrontation I had with a person
from AT&T while I was at SUG in San Jose this past month.

I went to SUG this past month and had a really fun time walking about
the showroom floor with a friend of mine. We are both artists so we were
particularly interested in the graphics demos. I noticed that AT&T had
a booth and I was just curious to see what they were peddling. So we
ventured into their demo space. An AT&T person came over and asked if he
could help answer any questions and was fairly nice. 

He wanted to hand me a book containing alot of AT&T products
and I said "Is this the *same* AT&T company that is suing BSDI for
UNIX?" He looked at me startled and I handed the book back to him
and proceeded to say "No thanks." We then went into a long intense
discussion about the lawsuit (turns out he was with the group that
persues such things as finding companies who are using AT&T stuff
unlicensed - Intelectual Properties) and I basically told him I could
only think of really negative things about AT&T due to this case.

I shouldn't have given him a hard time but I felt his motto was "If AT&T
says so then I fully stand behind them." Blind trust. No questions as
to whether it's right or wronge. This reminds me of a nightmare I had the 
other night...  shiver!

I ended up leaving a "Net2 Live AT&T Free or Die" button on their 
booth keyboard after they left. I wanted to give it to the fellow I actually
spoke with but everyone had already split when I returned with the button. 

Prehaps we will share email. I gave him my card and told him to tell
his reps that I was a potential customer who was really turned off by
what AT&T is doing. I gave him my card and just hope I am not 
tracked down by the IRS or FBI now. :) They may be in league *snicker*

One cool thing was that a fellow from Cygnus came over in the
heat of our discussion and helped clear up some of my vaugness about
certain issues. He was wonderful! What a bright, smart guy. Cute too :).

Anyways, he blew the AT&T fellow away by saying you could make money 
supporting free software. It was like a completely alien concept to him. 
He could not comprehend making money off of something you didn't own.
Of course the other booth attendies were feeling distress and were not 
happy about our being there discussing the whole issue in front of all 
the potential customers wandering about. I recon I wasn't being very 
thoughtful but I was just overcome by passion and the feeling that someone 
had to say something to them. It felt *wonderful* to be able to express my 
feelings about the whole case that AT&T has brought up against BSDI and 
the University of California at Berkeley. 

Sigh....

I recall saying that I felt AT&T was not going to win this one and that
the lawsuit will prehaps help to clear up things about issues that need to
be discussed now (like, can any one company actually own Unix).

-lile


-- 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lile Elam	    |  "Remember... No matter where you go, there you are."
lile@netcom.com     |		
Un*x Admin / Artist |			 Buckaroo Banzai
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Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss