Unix, Linux, and variant history



  • I came across this and thought it was the most profoundly significant thing I'd read so far today:

    "When Multics was withdrawn Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie needed to
    rewrite an operating system to play space travel on another smaller
    machine (a DEC PDP-7 [Programmed Data Processor 4K memory for user
    programs). The result was a system that a punning colleague called UNICS
    (UNiplexed Information and Computing Service)--an 'emasculated
    Multics'."


  • BINNED

    FUNNY_NOT_FOUND

    keep Discourse Body happy with mind



  • It's interesting, but it implies that the entire OS was developed because two guys wanted to port a video game. While the desire to run Space Travel on the new OS (with its much smaller hardware) was definitely true, they actually started the project because they wanted to bring some of the capabilities of Multics to a much simpler environment and small hardware was all they could get to do the work on.

    [URL=http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050414215646742]This article[/URL] (referenced by the [URL=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix]Wikipedia[/URL] page) does a better (and far more verbose) job of explaining the situation.



  • No mention yet that C was written explicitly so that they could rewrite UNIX using it?


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