The Unix revolution: thank you, Uncle Sam?

“Almost twenty-five years before the first Unix Programmers
Manual was released, the United States Department of Justice
announced that it was pursuing an antitrust action against
AT&T, which controlled most of the nation’s telephone network.
The 73-page complaint was released in 1949, just after Harry Truman
was reelected to the White House. It charged AT&T with running
a price-fixing conspiracy. The document also accused AT&T
subsidiary Western Electric of monopolizing the market for
telephones.

“The DoJ demanded that AT&T be divested of the device-making
company, but the Korean War exploded a year later. AT&T
responded by wrapping itself in the American flag, noting its role
as a defense contractor and its management of Sandia Labs. “

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