feat: new unix history layout

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 186 deletions

diff --git a/content/unix-history/_index.md b/content/unix-history/_index.md
index 15ae9e3..abb160e 100644
--- a/content/unix-history/_index.md
+++ b/content/unix-history/_index.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ date = 2024-03-09T21:03:00+01:00
 categories = ["bsd"]
 draft = false
 weight = 1001
-primary_menu = "bsd"
+primary_menu = "unix-history"
 aliases = ["/bsd/history//"]
 [menu]
   [menu.bsd]
@@ -13,192 +13,13 @@ aliases = ["/bsd/history//"]
     identifier = "unix-history"
 +++
 
-## Part 1: Multics {#part-1-multics}
+To say that the history of Unix is long and convoluted would be a huge understatement. It started i's life as a gaming OS dressed as typesetting one in a forgotten alley in an research center, but soon became the most important idea in modern computing history. No other OS had such broad impact on how we work with computers. And despite that, it's mostly a forgotten name. It lives in it's ideas and licenses, but very rarely do we think about running Unix.
 
+This site is a fanpage, and a love letter to computer history. To the brilliant minds and sneazy lawers. To the original, the followers, and imitators.
 
-### Origins of time-sharing {#origins-of-time-sharing}
 
-Let's start our journey back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, engineers wore ties, and Barbie was first gaining popularity - the 60s.
-Nowadays, we have grown accustom to companies selling devices at lower profit margins - with most profit coming from software subscriptions.
-But 70 years ago it was the complete opposite.
-Companies bought expensive computers, huge machines, and what was running on them was of lesser value.
-And I really mean _expensive_.
-An IBM System/360 Model 20, presented in 1964, could have been bought starting from USD 62,710 (USD 622,626 adjusted for inflation) or rented for USD 1280 (USD 12,708 adjusted)[^fn:1].
-Sellers earned a lot from the devices.
-But, naturally, companies making all those investments wanted a nice return.
-This led to the creation of _time-sharing_.
+## Table of content {#table-of-content}
 
-{{< img-c "ibm-360.jpg" "https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/gadgets/5-reasons-love-mad-mens-new-star-ibm-360-n101716" >}}
-IBM 360 in an official photoshoot.
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-This concept seems natural now: multiple processes were able to share computer resources, so multiple applications could run at the same time.
-Applications could even run for different users.
-Ergo, time-sharing allowed for multi-user multitask processing.
-This is in stark contrast to batch-processing, where only a single program would be able to compute at any particular time.
-An example of such processing would be EDSAC, the first electronic computer[^fn:2].
-I won't go into detail of time-sharing, but you can read more in "Time sharing in large computers", C. Strachey, 1959.
-But what is important here is how it was used.
-All computation happened on a single, large server.
-End users would use _computer terminals_ which were _multiplexed_ into that server, called a _mainframe_.
-What is multiplexing you ask?
-Simply said, it's a way to combine different signals into a shared medium.
-It was used extensively for land-line telephony, where all signals were transferred over shared wires.
-
-{{< img-c "edsac.jpg" "https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/rebuilding-edsac-the-first-real-computer/" >}}
-EDSAC, the "first computer".
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-
-### Multics {#multics}
-
-Let's jump to 1969.
-
-_Multics (MULTiplexed Information and Computing)_ was an early time-sharing operating system developed by _MIT_, _General Electrics_ and _Bell Labs_.
-It pioneered many of innovations which are still widely used in the computing systems of today: hierarchical file system, redirection as interprocess communication, or the existence of a shell[^fn:3], as well as memory pages, memory protection, or the ability for a single machine to use multiple CPUs and memory[^fn:4].
-It was however also huge, both in terms of memory usage (the resident kernel could occupy a huge part of memory living not enough for applications) and code size (it consisted of about 1,5k source modules)[^fn:3].
-_Multics_ was experimental and therefore ambitious, complex - designed by trial and error.
-It was delivered late, early on had performance problems, and in 1969 _Bell Labs_ withrew from the project[^fn:5].
-
-{{< img-c "multics-login.png" "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics#/media/File:Multics-Login.png" >}}
-Multics login screen.
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-{{< img-c "thompson-ritchie.jpg" "https://computerhistory.org/blog/discovering-dennis-ritchies-lost-dissertation/" >}}
-Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie.
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna, frustrated with their experiences with _Multics_ Operating System are starting to work on their own alternative.
-Their work will become one of the most beloved computer products of all time - _UNIX_.
-The team armed with previous experience set up to create simple, manageable OS that would still fulfill all the requirements _Multics_ was to fulfill.
-
-Currently, however, they have problems convincing _Bell Labs_ management to get them a new computer.
-This has not stopped them from designing the system on black blackboards and paper.
-
-
-## Part II: Unix {#part-ii-unix}
-
-
-### Bell Labs {#bell-labs}
-
-Let's pause here and discuss a few things.
-
-_Bell Labs_ was a research institute founded by no other, but the famous Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
-It is known as one of the most innovative places ever conceived.
-It was the birthplace of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the photovoltaic cell, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, and the programming languages B, C, C++, S, SNOBOL, AWK, AMPL, and the UNIX operating system.
-The work completed there was awarded 10 times with a Nobel Prize[^fn:6].
-
-But it wasn't all pretty.
-AT&amp;T (owner of the lab) was _the_ telephone company in the USA.
-It had the _de facto_ monopoly for most of the 20th century.
-This led to a consent decree with US Government under which AT&amp;T was forbidden to branch out to other markets.
-This agreement happened in 1956 and will be very important for our story[^fn:7].
-
-Another cool tidbit: back then computer screens as we know them now were yet to be invented.
-There were ways for computer to present information on a screen, but it was not feasable to present information back to the user in real time.
-The monitor was a separate machine and an _assembly_ code to light up individual pixels would need to be sent every time to it.
-If the user wanted to see what the edited document looked like, the only way to achieve that was via a printer.
-Try to print a page every few lines - let alone every character.
-Even the bravest of the brave would not escape the anger of the finance department.
-
-
-### Getting a computer {#getting-a-computer}
-
-After this short intermission, let's return to _UNIX_.
-
-The popular history of _UNIX_ goes as follows:
-Ken Thompson finds a PDP-7 microcomputer, starts playing with it and suddenly realizes that he has created a new operating system.
-
-What he actually wanted to do, was to play a damn game.
-A completely reasonable reason to revolutionize the industry if you ask me.
-
-Ken was a huge fan of _Space Travel_, but it was only available on mainframes.
-And since those costed an arm and a leg, end users were paying for time they used.
-A single game of _Space Travel_ could cost Ken USD 50-75[^fn:8].
-Luckily, he was able to find a discarded PDP-7 from another department[^fn:7].
-
-{{< img-c "space-travel.png" "https://www.uvlist.net/game-164857-Space+Travel" >}}
-Space Travel
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-What the PDP-7 was, was a refrigerator size 18bit monstrosity[^fn:7].
-It was at the time a 5-year-old and obsolete[^fn:5] leftover from an ended research into audio-psychology.
-No one cared what would happen to this particular machine.
-Have I mentioned just how stinky rich the _Bell Lab_ was?
-So, Ken started rewriting the game for that PDP-7 as _GECOS Space Travel_.
-
-Porting the game proved challenging and difficult to debug, so they developed a system for PDP-7 to make developing  the game easier.
-This was how _PDP UNIX_ was born[^fn:9].
-A guy wanted to play a god-damn game and now bankrupt in the process[^fn:7]
-
-Labs management was very happy with this turn of events as _UNIX_ was something to show after the _Multics_ fiasco.
-They allowed Ken to get himself a _PDP-11_ and port _UNIX_ to it.
-It was a cheaper machine compared to _PDP-7_, but it was also 16bit - which was a nice change.
-Officially, the new system would allow for document preparation for patent applications[^fn:5].
-The biggest benefit however was the popularity of this machine - over the next decades it could be seen everywhere across enterprise America.
-You can buy a working one from _eBay_ today.
-It won't be easy nor cheap, but definitely possible.
-
-{{< img-c "pdp-7.jpeg" "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-7#/media/File:Pdp7-oslo-2005.jpeg" >}}
-PDP-7
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-{{< img-c "thompson-ritchie-pdp11.jpg" "https://www.bell-labs.com/institute/blog/invention-unix/" >}}
-Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie working on the legendary PDP-11.
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-
-#### Unix 1 {#unix-1}
-
-So here we are, November 1971, and _UNIX 1_ for _PDP-11_ is released[^fn:10]
-
-A year later Ken notes:
-
->
->
-> [...]the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with
-> more expected. None of these has exactly the same complement of
-> hardware or software. Therefore, at any particular installation,
-> it is quite possible that this manual will give inappropriate
-> information. [...] Also, not all installations have the latest versions of all the software.''
->
-> -- Unix Programmers Manual, Second Edition. Thompson Ken, Ritchie Denis, 1972
-
-Note, that this is 10 mainframes across _Bell Labs_, so user count was significantly higher.
-
-It's also worth to talk about release cycle.
-UNIX was in constant development, and each installation would use current snapshot at the moment of installation.
-This is why Ken notes that each part of _UNIX_ could differ between installations.
-What is also important is that due to licensing of _UNIX_ (or rather lack of thereof), each installation would be accompanied by full source code.
-Administrators were able to modify the system.
-Crazy times.
-
-Still, in June 1972 the 2nd Edition of _UNIX_ was released and every 7–8 months a new release was out.
-
-In November 1973, a 4th Edition was released, and it was the first one released to Universities.
-It made quite the buzz, and first user groups started forming under the _USENIX_ name[^fn:7].
-It's worth to mention that this version was rewritten in C, as  previous versions which were created in Assembly
-This made it the first portable _UNIX_, as it could be recompiled to any compared, as long as it also had a C compiler[^fn:5].
-
-The system was presented by Ken and Denis during the _4th Symposium on Operating System Principles_ the same year,
-and a year later Ken and Dennis publish the first paper on _UNIX_ - "The UNIX Time-Sharing System" in the _Communications_ journal of ACM.
-
-{{< img-c "unix-tech-journal.jpg" "https://leancrew.com/all-this/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-unix-and-clarity/" >}}
-Bell System Technical Journal cover.
-{{< /img-c >}}
-
-The word was out and _UNIX_ became known outside of _Bell Labs_.
-
-In the next episode of History of BSD: the scariest creature of them all.
-Lawyers.
-
-[^fn:1]: [IBM 360 Model 20 Rescue and Restoration: Machine Overview](https://ibms360.co.uk/?p=902)
-[^fn:2]: [First Operating System -- Part One](http://blog.wovenmemories.net/2023/10/30/First.Operating.System_Part.1.html)
-[^fn:3]: [Multics  --- {W}ikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics)
-[^fn:4]: [Mark Allen - Before Unix: An Early History of Timesharing Systems](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYb6WqWBTE0)
-[^fn:5]: [The early days of Unix at Bell Labs - Brian Kernighan (LCA 2022 Online)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCr_KFl41E)
-[^fn:6]: [Bell Labs  --- {W}ikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs)
-[^fn:7]: [The hidden early history of unix the forgotten history of early unix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuzeagzqwrs)
-[^fn:8]: [UVL](https://www.uvlist.net/game-164857-Space+Travel)
-[^fn:9]: [Living Computer Museum](https://livingcomputers.org/Blog/Restoring-UNIX-v0-on-a-PDP-7-A-look-behind-the-sce.aspx) has a real PDP-7 running _PDP Unix_ if want to chek it.
-[^fn:10]: The 50th anniversary of this event was very big for a small group of fans.
+{{< menu "unix-history" >}}
+Dune
+{{< /menu >}}