[dredmorbius]

Tapes shipped "from Ken, with love" are part of the legend.

Another significant factor was the 1950s consent decree under which AT&T operated, which prevented it from going into the computing business, as well as the lack of an explicit recognition of copyright for software. Effectively, AT&T couldn't sell Unix, even if it wanted to, so it had to give it away (or charge no more than the media fee for it).

This all changed after 1984 and the break-up of Ma Bell, giving rise to the UNIX Wars, Free BSD (1-800-ITS-UNIX!!), Minix, and a longing for the days when small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.