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diff --git a/content-org/unix-history.org b/content-org/unix-history.org index 0c51243..1a7240a 100644 --- a/content-org/unix-history.org +++ b/content-org/unix-history.org @@ -7,7 +7,11 @@ #+HUGO_WEIGHT: auto #+HUGO_SECTION: unix-history -* DONE Unix history :@bsd: +* UH :@unix_history: +:PROPERTIES: +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :image_dir "unix-history" :image_max_width 700 +:END: +** DONE Unix history CLOSED: [2024-03-09 Sat 21:03] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: _index @@ -24,14 +28,14 @@ To say that the history of Unix is long and convoluted would be a huge understat 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. -** Table of contents +*** Table of contents #+attr_shortcode: "unix-history" #+begin_menu Dune #+end_menu -* DONE History of Unix part I: Multics :@unix_history: +** DONE History of Unix part I: Multics CLOSED: [2024-03-09 Sat 21:03] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 01_multics @@ -44,7 +48,7 @@ CLOSED: [2024-03-09 Sat 21:03] :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "unix-history" :END: -*** 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. @@ -79,7 +83,7 @@ It was used extensively for land-line telephony, where all signals were transfer EDSAC, the "first computer". #+end_img-c -*** Multics +**** Multics Let's jump to 1969. @@ -107,8 +111,7 @@ Currently, however, they have problems convincing /Bell Labs/ management to get This has not stopped them from designing the system on black blackboards and paper. - -* DONE History of Unix part II: Birth of Unix :@unix_history: +** DONE History of Unix part II: Birth of Unix CLOSED: [2024-03-16 Sat 21:00] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 02_unix @@ -121,7 +124,7 @@ CLOSED: [2024-03-16 Sat 21:00] :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "unix-history" :END: -*** Bell Labs +**** Bell Labs Let's pause here and discuss a few things. @@ -143,7 +146,7 @@ If the user wanted to see what the edited document looked like, the only way to 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/. @@ -191,7 +194,7 @@ PDP-7 Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie working on the legendary PDP-11. #+end_img-c -*** Unix 1 +**** Unix 1 So here we are, November 1971, and /UNIX 1/ for /PDP-11/ is released[fn:50] @@ -249,19 +252,18 @@ Lawyers. [fn:earlylin] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCr_KFl41E][The early days of Unix at Bell Labs - Brian Kernighan (LCA 2022 Online)]] - -* DONE History of Unix part III: Unix Wars :@unix_history: +** DONE History of Unix part III: Forks and Wars CLOSED: [2024-05-29 Wed 21:50] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 03_unix_wars :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :abstract How Unix came to be? :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :shortname Part III: Unix Wars -:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu unix-history :name "3. Unix Wars" -:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c -:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :primary_menu "unix-history" +:EXPORT_HUGO_MENU: :menu unix-history :name "3. Forks and Wars" +:EXPORT_HUGO_PAIRED_SHORTCODES: img-c image +:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER+: :primary_menu "unix-history" :END: -# This resulted in a very peticular situation. +This resulted in a very peticular situation. Different organizations got into possesion of a /great/ operating system with which they were able to do whatever they pleased. The original creators, AT&T were unable to sell the software. Of course, they wanted to monetize on this opportunitty. @@ -272,33 +274,39 @@ Remember, I try to link sources so please go take a visit to /their/ sites and t But please, go and see Warner Hosh's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuzeagzQwRs][talk]] on the early history of UNIX. It's a gold mine and guiding light allowing me to write the following chapter. -** Other Bell Unixes -But the first forks (separaterly developed versions of /Unix/) came from Bell[fn:hiddenunix]. +*** Other Bell Unixes + +But the first forks (separately developed versions of /Unix/) came from Bell[fn:hiddenunix]. https://youtu.be/XuzeagzQwRs?si=VJjyR1A_ofZAoguI&t=1610 -AT&T was, as we remember, a telphone company. -Lot of wires comming into centralized spaces, called /switches/. -The first known fork of /Unix/ was intended to automate switching of connections, therefore the very long name - /New Jersey Bell Switich Control Center System (/NJ Bell SCCS). +AT&T was, as we remember, a telephone company. +Lots of wires coming into centralized buildings, called /switches/. +The first known fork of /Unix/ was intended to automate switching of connections, therefore the very long name - /New Jersey Bell Switch Control Center System (/NJ Bell SCCS). This version of /Unix/ is the earliest known usage of the OS family outside of Bell Labs. -It was released in 1971 as a fork of 1st or 2nd edition of /Unix/ and was the first known /Unix/ to support interprocess communication and file locking. -Those advencements were not backported to mainline /Unix/ until /System V/[fn:cbwiki],[fn:hiddenunix]. -Soon after it evolved into Columbus Linux (/CB-Unix/), as the /SCCS Unix/ was developed by Bell Division 59473 in Columbus, Ohio. - -#+attr_shortcode: "cb-unix-manuals.jpg" "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_UNIX#/media/File:CB_Unix_Manuals.jpg" -#+begin_img-c +It was released in 1971 as a fork of 1st or 2nd edition of /Unix/ and was the first known /Unix/ to support inter-process communication and file locking. +Those advancements were not back ported to mainline /Unix/ until /System V/[fn:cbwiki],[fn:hiddenunix]. +Soon, after it evolved into Columbus Linux (/CB-Unix/), as the /SCCS Unix/ was developed by Bell Division 59473 in Columbus, Ohio. + +#+attr_shortcode: :file cb-unix-manuals.jpg +#+attr_shortcode: :source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_UNIX#/media/File:CB_Unix_Manuals.jpg +#+attr_shortcode: :alt Two red books containing Volume 1 and 2 of Programmers Manuals for CB Unix +#+attr_shortcode: :class centered +#+begin_image Programmers Manuals for CB Unix -#+end_img-c +#+end_image -In a completely different part of Bell Labs another project was starting to use /Unix/. + + +In a completely different part of Bell Labs, another project was starting to use /Unix/. /Mert/ (Multi-Environment Real-Time) was a fork for use in embedded minicomputers, like PDP-11s[fn:mertwiki]. -Yes, virtualization is not a new idea - it dates back to the 60s where is was developed by IBM. +Yes, virtualization is not a new idea - it dates back to the 60s where it was developed by IBM. And so in 1973 /Unix V4/ was ported to run as a supervisor. It was the first time /Unix/ was run in a virtualized environment[fn:hiddenunix],[fn:mertwiki]. Thus system evolved into /Unix/RT/ and then /DMERT/ -Yet another version was /PWB/Unix/ which was designed to be used to create software for batch processingy. +Yet another version was /PWB/Unix/ which was designed to be used to create software for batch processing. This was how processing was done back then - you created your program, submitted it to a mainframe, but with the use of /Unix/ no longer one needed to provide a deck of cards to a operator. As a result, /PWB/ provided an early version of Source Control System. To make work easier, this was the first version to include a /shell/ - /pwb shell/. @@ -315,16 +323,16 @@ The next version after that, /Unix-TS 5.0/, became the /System V/.[fn:hiddenunix We're not done yet. /UNIX/ has seen it's share of history and we're still in the 70s. 1975 saw the release of MUNUX, most likely as a fork of /UNIX V5/[fn:hiddenunix]. -It was a modification of monoprocessing system, UNIX, to multiprocessing utylizing two PDP 11/50[fn:munix]. -Yes, multi processor processing was reserched in the 70s. +It was a modification of mono-processing system, UNIX, to multiprocessing utilizing two PDP 11/50[fn:munix]. +Yes, multi processor processing was researched in the 70s. /UNIX V6/ saw the addition of BBN TCP/IP Stack in 1977. -This is worth mentioning, as before that Bell labs pretended that packets are to be ignored, as networking is to be done using circut switching. +This is worth mentioning, as before that Bell labs pretended that packets are to be ignored, as networking is to be done using circuit switching. AT&T was a /telephone/ company after all[fn:hiddenunix]. /V6/ from 1975 introduced yet another feature - commercial license. We will get back to that, but it is what sounds like: AT&T is earning money from Unix. -** Unix from other Universities +*** AUSAN and the birth of BSD /AUSAM/, the /Australian Unix Share Accounting Method/ was the first community maintained fork of Unix based on the Sixth Edition[fn:hiddenunix]. The work conducted at Universities of Sydney and New South Wales focused on allowing the system to run with huge number of users[fn:ausantuhs]. @@ -332,15 +340,196 @@ The changes returned to /Unix V7/, but /AUSAM/ was never upgraded to a full 7th https://youtu.be/XuzeagzQwRs?si=ZXhDIsNgliZpfml3 -- AUSAM -- University of Illinois NCP Stack -- Spider Cell Network -- BSD - - - - - +In 1975, Ken Thompson took a sabbatical and took a teaching job at Berkeley University, where he helped install Version 6 of /Unix/. +The OS received quite the attention of students and faculty, resulting in the first version of /BSD Unix/ - /1BSD/. +The lineage of BSD is extensive (not to mention their descendants are what I use) and will be a subject of the next part of our story. +For now, remember that /BSD/ exists. +The name will be all over the place, but proper history of /BSD/ lineage deserves deeper look. + + +/Unixes/ we got to know here were research projects. +People tried to understand what can be done with Computer using /Unix/ as the base. +But no one was stopping other people from earning money. +So they did. + +The first wave of commercial Unixes were mostly ports allowing to run /Unix/ on wide range of hardware. +Remember, this was way before X86 desecrated the scene and computers there were vastly different computer architectures on the market. +It was not small feat, and this is the hobby of a lot of folks in IT. +/Doom/ is supposed to be ported to /everything that can compute/. +The good old IBM PC got /386/IX/ (aka /PC/386/) in 1977. +Amigas got their /Amiga Unix/ in 1990 developed by /Commodore-Amiga, Inc.//. +HP's internal line of mainframes were given /HP-Unix/ in 1984. +Most of those don't have any value now, but it's important thread in out story. + +*** Solaris + +However some of those forks have /huge/ value. +Sun Microsystems (murdered by Oracle buyout) offered their own line of workstations. +Their /Unixes/ were initially based on /BSD/ under the name of /SunOS/ - versions 1 to 4.1.4. +Starting with version 5 however, the base OS was changed to /System V/ and the OS renamed to /Solaris/. +Up to this day, this one of the most well remembered OSes. +Mind you, it's still developed (in 2023), but people simply don't want to do anything in proximity to Oracle. + +*** Xenix + +Some /Unixes/ are remember for very different version. +Xenix, released in 1970 was a fork for IBM/PC (among st others) released and developed by Microsoft. +Yes, a timeline exists where Windows never became the standard, and instead a MS branded Unix rules the land. +The firt version is said to be very close to /System 7/, but with time more and more changes were applied. +It was quite the buzz in the buzz, even Intel sold a complete computers with Xenix preinstalled under the name System 86. +Measured by number of machines on which it was installed, /Xenix/ was the most common /Unix/ variant by the mid-to-late 1980s[fn:wikixenix] +Nothing of this mattered in the death march of Windows, and the last version was released in 1991. + +#+attr_shortcode: :file unix-world-xenix.jpg +#+attr_shortcode: :source https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/microsofts-xenix +#+attr_shortcode: :alt Cover of Unix World from 1985 showing Bill Gates with "Bill Gates on the future of Xenix" feature +#+attr_shortcode: :class centered +#+begin_image +What an issue that was! +#+end_image + +*** AT&T Strikes Back + +None of the systems developed outside of AT&T could use the name /Unix/, as the it was a trademark. +The management of AT&T was paying attention and starting to get hungry. +However, by 1980s, the most popular variant of non-commercial /Unix/ was /BSD[fn:wikiunixwars]/. + +The /Unix/ landscape was like nothing else. +Despite companies sharing up to 90% of code, all the /Unixes/ were incompatible. +Hardware and software vendors were unable to support all of them. +The was no /Single Unix/, which made it the adoption much slower and painful. +In 1981 Ma Bell (Mother Bell, a common colloquial name for Bell companies) helped a bit by combining all of Bell's /Unixes/ into a single one - /Unix System 3/. +It's binaries were sub-licensed for 100USD. +Nothing big enough to trigger legal actions, but /Bell Unix/ became a commercial product. + +This could not go like this forever. + +The change came from no one other, but the U.S. Department of Justice. +The year is 1983 and the second antitrust case against AT&T is settled, causing the breakup of Bell System. +This removed the decree from 1956 and AT&T was able to commercialize /Unix/. +AT&T swiftly introduced the (aforementioned) /Unix System V/ (note the lack of /System IV/). +You could now buy an AT&T /Unix/ for the low price of $43,000, though it allowed for commercial usage of the source code. +Of course, add-ons (like networking) were sold separately. +This product received it's own division within AT&T - /AT&T Information Systems/, later /Unix System Laboratories/ or /USL/[fn:ytchronicle]. + +AT&T intended /System V/ to be the standard way to experience /Unix/, but others disagreed. +The situation on the battlefield was complex, with different players putting their figures all over the place. +We had two behemoths - AT&T with /System V/ and Berkeley University with /BSD/, now on version 4.2 plus a lot of smaller players. +AT&T had all the money and name to crush anyone but did not support networking. +BSD had a TCP/IP based networking and was popular among st universities. + +Vendor were choosing sides - IBM and HP went with /System V/ while others, like Sun choose /BSD/. +On 27th of March, 1984 AT&T officially enters computer market with their own line of computers from desktops PCs to "super-microcomputers" powered by /Unix/[fn:ytchronicle]. + +#+attr_shortcode: :file att-unix-pc.jpg +#+attr_shortcode: :source https://www.thejumpingfrog.com/product/sku/1526351 +#+attr_shortcode: :alt An print ad for AT&T Unix PC showing the computer and listing features +#+attr_shortcode: :class centered +#+begin_image +Introducing the AT&T Unix PC. +#+end_image + +#+attr_shortcode: :file mt-xinu.png +#+attr_shortcode: :source https://archive.org/details/mtxinu-mach386/Mt.Xinu%20BSD%20Poster.png +#+attr_shortcode: :alt A drawing of an space ship flying of a planet looking like System V logo. On top text 4.2 > V can be seen. +#+attr_shortcode: :class centered +#+begin_image +Mt Xinu poster shows the atmosphere of those days . +#+end_image + +*** BSD on the verge + +The rules of the game also changed. +All /Unixes/ shared code originating from Bell Labs, but AT&T was not happy with this. +Therefore, while BSD still could be used for research purposes, any commercial usage would require first purchasing rights for /System V/ usage. +The system came with license agreement allowing only for usage in academic institutions and purposes. + +By 1980s features of BSD were adopted back in /System V/. +This, and the license made users and vendors flock towards AT&T, since they had to get a license anyway. +Even curriculum was changed, since distributed source code of Unix (be it during lectures or in text books) were under AT&T control[fn:ytchronicle]. +This made /Lions Commentary on UNIX/ the most photocopied book in academic history. +Owning Nth generation, barely readable copy gave significant bragging rights[fn:hiddenunix]. + +*** Alliances - X/Open, AT&T&Sun, OSF, UI + +All of this made /Unix/ suffer. +People were not writing software for it, since all flavors were incompatible. + +Seeing the situation, a number of companies joined forces to create a single standard . +In 1984 the /Open Group for Unix Systems/ was formed by the likes of Bull, ICL, Siemes, Olivetti, and Nixdorf. +The group was commonly known as /BISON/, from first names of their name. +Later, the name was changed to /X/Open/. + +The group decided to base their standard on /System V/ because they "decided to run the risk of exploitation by AT&T rather than by IBM”[fn:michigan]. +The first version of the specification, X/Open Portability Guide Issue 1 was published in 1985 and “covered basic operating system interfaces”[fn:klara]. + +The situation was, however, dire. +In 1985 /MS-DOS/ had 5x the number of applications compared to /Unix/. +This lead to the year 1986, and AT&T took a $1.2 billion loss, with half of that in computer industry. + +In 1987 AT&T and Sun enter an agreement. +Sun, by that time, was the largest /Unix/ vendor with /Solaris/ based on /BSD 4.2/ and their own line of RISC-based microprocessors - SPARC. +The official note stated that they are joining forces to "pursue co-development of a standard Unix operating system based on AT&T’s System V, Berkeley’s BSD 4.2, and the graphical capabilities of Sun’s Sun-OS"[fn:klara]. + +The computer world was not happy with those giants creating their own front. +The fear was that it could lead to a total domination of the market by AT&T OS running on Sun hardware. +DEC engineer Armando Stettner, said: "When Sun and AT&T announced the alliance, we at Digital were concerned that AT&T was no longer the benign, benevolent progenitor of UNIX…Sun was everyone’s most aggressive competitor. +We saw Sun’s systems were direct replacements for the VAX. +Just think: the alliance combined our most aggressive and innovative competitor with the sole source of the system software — the balance shifted."[fn:klara], [fn:groklaw] + +This lead to the creation of third combined group - in 1988 representatives from Apollo, DEC, Gould Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell-Bull, InfoCorp, MIPS, NCR, Silicon Graphics, UniSoft, and Unisys met in DEC's office in Palo Alto. +Initially the group called themselves /Hamilton Group/ (from Hamilton Avenue, where DEC offices were located). +Their goal was to get AT&T on board, but it failed.[fn:klara] +As a reaction, they invited IBM who happily joined and in May of 1988 they official announced their existence under the name of /Open Software Foundation (OSF)/.[fn:ytchronicle] +They decided not to base their standard on AT&T: "Unlike X/Open, OSF planned to produce an operating system that it would license to its members, rather than function only as an advisory body."[fn:klara] + +This had the historical effect of putting rivals, DEC and IBM on the same side. +DEC co-founder, Ken Olsen never before shared a stage with any IBM executive before. +Even Ken Thomson while traveling in Australia commented on this to Dennis Ritchie: "Just think, IBM and DEC in one room. We did it!"[fn:ytchronicle]. +Sun's CEO, Scott McNealy was not as pleased, as he called the OSF the "Oppose Sun Forever". +The heat lead to AT&T and Sun creating /Unix International/, whose goal was to advice AT&T on /System V/ and promote its development. +The voting rights were based on, of course, financial contributions[fn:klara]. + +OSF faced internal problems due to consisting parties often competing on mainframe market. +This left OSI and UI as the dominant powers in the straggle, and in total they ended with over two hundred members. +Both also developed and released their own Unixes. +In November of 1989 AT&T releases a commercial version of /System V Release 5/, and in 1990 the OSF released /OSF/1/ based on IBM's AIX and Carnegie Mellon’s MACH operating systems[fn:klara] + +*** Enemy mine + +The battle continued into 1990s, and there was no sign of a clear winner. +First, the economy turned to the worst with the early 1990s recession in the US. +Most players of the Unix Wars, as we call them now, started seeing decrease in profit - sometimes loses. +Second, 1993 saw the release of /Windows NT/, which was aimed directly at the market /Unix/ was fighting for. +Having a single, widely supported OS allowed Microsoft to quickly gain huge market share. + +/Unix/ fought with more standardization attempts. + +Firstly, in 1988 the IEEE 1003 was released, /Portable Operating System Interface/, aka /POSIX/. + +The second was known as /Common Open Software Environment/, the /COSE/. +It was one more attempt to create an open, unified, standardized /Unix/. +This time, however, it was not an fight between /Unix/ vendors. +This was the first time they had to unite against a common enemy. +Initially the group consisted of The Santa Cruz Operations, Unix System Laboratories, Univel, Sun, HP, and IBM +They tasked themselves not with creating of a single unified OS, but rather with survey and document what already was there. +The result of their work is /Spec 1170/, now known as /Single Unix Specification/.[fn:klara], [fn:wikicose] + + +This lead to the last attempt. +In 1996 OSF and X/Open merged and became /The Open Group/ which exists till today. +It was however too late for /Unix/ to regain it's dominance. +The value was lost, the /Unix/ wars saw the raise of Microsoft and a new player - GNU/Linux. +#+attr_shortcode: :file cde.png +#+attr_shortcode: :source http://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/LinuxBuild/ +#+attr_shortcode: :alt Screenshot of an Unix system running Common Desktop Environment +#+attr_shortcode: :class centered +#+begin_image +One of the great achievements of The Open Group was Common Desktop Environment +#+end_image + + +The trademark of /Unix/ resides now with /The Open Group/ which is responsible for certification of products. [fn:hiddenunix] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuzeagzqwrs][The hidden early history of unix the forgotten history of early unix]] [fn:cbwiki] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_UNIX @@ -349,8 +538,20 @@ https://youtu.be/XuzeagzQwRs?si=ZXhDIsNgliZpfml3 [fn:gnukiesusg] https://gunkies.org/wiki/UNIX_Support_Group [fn:munix] https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36714194.pdf [fn:ausantuhs] https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=AUSAM - - +[fn:wikilist] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unix_systems +[fn:wikixenix] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix +[fn:wikiunixwars] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars +[fn:ytchronicle] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffh3DRFzRL0][A Chronicle of the Unix Wars]] by Asianometry on Youtube +[fn:klara] [[https://klarasystems.com/articles/unix-wars-the-battle-for-standards/][Unix Wars]] on Klara Systems +[fn:michigan] [[https://websites.umich.edu/~afuah/cases/case12.html][UNIX STANDARDS IN THE 1990s]] on University of Michigan +[fn:groklaw] [[http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050601125916588][The Daemon, the GNU and the Penguin]] by by Peter H. Salus +[fn:wikicose] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Open_Software_Environment +[fn:ytmaddog] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMA3Ge144U][Jon "maddog" Hall talks Unix and Linux history]] on Youtube + +* Other https://minnie.tuhs.org/Seminars/AUUG96/pdppaper.html https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl - +http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/interactiveSystems/386ix_version_2.0/386ix_Software_Development_System_Guide_Dec1988.pdf +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffh3DRFzRL0 +https://www.usenix.org/system/files/login/articles/login_apr15_17_salus.pdf +https://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch02s01.html |