UNIX CONSPIRACY

Domain	Definition
Computing	Unix conspiracy n. [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. --ESR]. Source: Jargon File.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Anagrams: UNIX CONSPIRACY

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-c-i-i-n-n-o-p-r-s-u-x-y"
	-4 letters: capricious, conspiracy.
	-5 letters: incursion, isopycnic.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.