
The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix (2011) - _acme
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-strange-birth-and-long-life-of-unix/0
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digi_owl
I suspect unix at this point in time is a "my grandfathers axe" kind of thing.

The concepts are there, and a lineage may be traced, but little of the
original parts still exists.

This because the basic concepts that define unix allows it to be modular and
adaptable.

~~~
bigger_cheese
Neal Stephenson's analogy from 'In the Beginning was the Command Line' is
pretty good:

"Unix, by contrast, is not so much a product as it is a painstakingly compiled
oral history of the hacker subculture. It is our Gilgamesh epic.

What made old epics like Gilgamesh so powerful and so long-lived was that they
were living bodies of narrative that many people knew by heart, and told over
and over again--making their own personal embellishments whenever it struck
their fancy. The bad embellishments were shouted down, the good ones picked up
by others, polished, improved, and, over time, incorporated into the story.
Likewise, Unix is known, loved, and understood by so many hackers that it can
be re-created from scratch whenever someone needs it."

~~~
tapan_k
Here's one from the book The Art of UNIX Programming[0]: "The Unix philosophy
is bottom-up and not top-down. It is pragmatic and grounded in experience."

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Programming-Addison-Wesley-
Profes...](http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Professional-
Computng/dp/0131429019)

~~~
emmelaich
Predating those two are:

UNIX as literature
[http://theody.net/elements.html](http://theody.net/elements.html)

Life with UNIX by Don Libes
[http://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/Books/Life_with...](http://minnie.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/Books/Life_with_Unix.pdf)
(from the author's website)

~~~
smhenderson
I'm only part way through the 1st chapter but the Don Libes book is quite
good. Having been written in 1989 it's an interesting perspective of Unix
before Linux.

Thanks for sharing!

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rdiddly
The Linus myth makes an appearance. Nobody's heard of GNU.

~~~
umanwizard
Yeah, it's mind-blowing that a guy who refers to himself as a "UNIX Historian"
doesn't mention Stallman even once.

~~~
cperciva
Maybe because GNU's, uhh, Not Unix?

~~~
umanwizard
Well, the author claims that Linus Torvalds single-handedly created an
operating system; which simply isn't true, regardless of whether GNU is Unix.

~~~
olalonde
Didn't Linus develop the first versions of the Linux kernel by himself?

~~~
creshal
A kernel does not make an operating system, you need an userland for it to be
useful.

And that was GNU.

~~~
olalonde
Ah ok, I see what you mean. I've always thought of "operating system" as the
kernel itself (and some set of user land tools as a "distribution") but I can
see how it could be interpreted differently.

~~~
umanwizard
I mean, what counts as the "operating system" is not the point here. It's
that, whatever "UNIX" is (operating system, distribution, or whatever you want
to call it), is more than just the kernel, and can't meaningfully be said to
be replicated by Linux without mentioning GNU.

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kgr
This video shows how Unix was mathematically more efficient than Multics,
which goes a very long way at explaining its success and longevity:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ea3pkTCYx4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ea3pkTCYx4)

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smhenderson
Great read, another link along side under Related...

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/inventing-
unix](http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/inventing-unix)

Also very entertaining. RIP Mr. Ritchie!

edit: wrong link, too many tabs. :-)

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xufi
I find UNIX amazing. What Thompson, Ritchie and McIllroy did was invaluable to
the world of computing . I'm still to get well versed about the early days of
it but its amazing how it transcended down to modern day

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emmelaich
Needs a (2011)

~~~
dang
Thanks, added.

