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diff --git a/content-org/bsd.org b/content-org/bsd.org index e4fd7526..57ab9ca2 100644 --- a/content-org/bsd.org +++ b/content-org/bsd.org @@ -1086,7 +1086,7 @@ This has not stopped them from designing the system on black blackboards and pap [fn:allen] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYb6WqWBTE0][Mark Allen - Before Unix: An Early History of Timesharing Systems]] [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 BSD part II: Unix -CLOSED: [2024-03-09 Sat 22:20] +CLOSED: [2024-03-16 Sat 21:00] :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: 02_unix :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: abstract BSD history starts with Multics @@ -1095,38 +1095,39 @@ CLOSED: [2024-03-09 Sat 22:20] :END: *** Bell Labs -Let's pause here and discuss explain a few things. +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. +/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 +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:wikibell]. But it wasn't all pretty. -AT&T was /the/ telephone company in the USA. +AT&T (owner of the lab) was /the/ telephone company in the USA. It had the /de facto/ monopoly for most of the 20th century. -It led to a consent decree with US Government under which AT&T was forbidden to branch out other markets. -This agreement happened in 1956 and will be very important for our story\cite{losh:hiddenunix}. +This led to a consent decree with US Government under which AT&T was forbidden to branch out to other markets. +This agreement happened in 1956 and will be very important for our story[fn:hiddenunix]. -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 usable for presenting information back to the user. -The monitor was a separate machine and an /assembly/. code to light up individual pixels would need to be sent to it. +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 finance department. +Even the bravest of the brave would not escape the anger of the finance department. *** Getting a computer -So here we are, let's return to /UNIX/. + +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. +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 user were paying for time they used. -A single game of /Space Travel/ could cost Ken USD 50-75. +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:uvlist]. Luckily, he was able to find a discarded PDP-7 from another department[fn:hiddenunix]. #+attr_shortcode: "space-travel.png" "https://www.uvlist.net/game-164857-Space+Travel" @@ -1134,22 +1135,21 @@ Luckily, he was able to find a discarded PDP-7 from another department[fn:hidden Space Travel #+end_img-c -What the PDP-7 was a refrigerator size 18bit monstrosity[fn:hiddenunix]. -It was a leftover from an ended research into audio-psychology. -It was at the time a 5-year-old and obsolete[fn:earlylin]. +What the PDP-7 was, was a refrigerator size 18bit monstrosity[fn:hiddenunix]. +It was at the time a 5-year-old and obsolete[fn:earlylin] 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 the system for PDP-6 to make developing of the game easier. -This was how /PDP UNIX/ was born. +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:lcm]. A guy wanted to play a god-damn game and now bankrupt in the process[fn:hiddenunix] Labs management was very happy with this turn of events as /UNIX/ was something to show after the /Multics/ fiasco. -So they allow 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. +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:earlylin]. -The biggest benefit however was the popularity of this machine - over the next decades it could be seen everywhere. +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. @@ -1162,21 +1162,21 @@ PDP-7 #+begin_img-c Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie working on the legendary PDP-11. #+end_img-c + *** Unix 1 -So we are in November 1971 and /UNIX 1/ for /PDP-11/ is released. -The 50th anniversary of this event was very big for a small group of fans. +So here we are, November 1971, and /UNIX 1/ for /PDP-11/ is released[fn:50] A year later Ken notes: #+begin_quote -the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with +[...]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.'' -[fn:unix2ed] Unix Programmers Manual, Second Edition. Thompson Ken, Ritchie Denis, 1972 +-- Unix Programmers Manual, Second Edition. Thompson Ken, Ritchie Denis, 1972 #+end_quote Note, that this is 10 mainframes across /Bell Labs/, so user count was significantly higher. @@ -1184,19 +1184,19 @@ Note, that this is 10 mainframes across /Bell Labs/, so user count was significa 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 due to licensing of /UNIX/ (or rather lack of thereof), each installation would be accomplished by full source code. +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 a 2nd Edition of /UNIX/ was released and every 7–8 months a new release was out. +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, so first user groups started forming under the /USENIX/ name[fn:hiddenunix]. -It's worth to mention that this version was rewritten in C, as compared to previous versions which were created in Assembly +It made quite the buzz, and first user groups started forming under the /USENIX/ name[fn:hiddenunix]. +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:earlylin]. -The system is also presented by Ken and Denis during the /4th Symposium on Operating System Principles/ the same year, -and a year later they publish the first paper on /UNIX/ - "The UNIX Time-Sharing System" in the /Communications/ journal of ACM. +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. #+attr_shortcode: "unix-tech-journal.jpg" "https://leancrew.com/all-this/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-unix-and-clarity/" #+begin_img-c @@ -1205,9 +1205,15 @@ Bell System Technical Journal cover. 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:wikibell] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs][Bell Labs --- {W}ikipedia{,} The Free Encyclopedia]] [fn:hiddenunix] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuzeagzqwrs][The hidden early history of unix the forgotten history of early unix]] [fn:earlylin] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECCr_KFl41E][The early days of Unix at Bell Labs - Brian Kernighan (LCA 2022 Online)]] +[fn:uvlist] [[https://www.uvlist.net/game-164857-Space+Travel][UVL]] +[fn:50] The 50th anniversary of this event was very big for a small group of fans. +[fn:lcm] [[https://livingcomputers.org/Blog/Restoring-UNIX-v0-on-a-PDP-7-A-look-behind-the-sce.aspx][Living Computer Museum]] has a real PDP-7 running /PDP Unix/ if want to chek it. * Varia :@bsd: ** DONE FreeBSD: Early thoughts |