UNIX
The fascinating story of how Unix began and how it took over the world. Brian Kernighan was a member of the original group of Unix developers, the creator of several fundamental Unix programs, and the co-author of classic books like "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming Environment."
Stats for nerds
14recommend
28mentions
23people
2010–2026years
68% recommend29% neutral4% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Thanks for sharing this link. I'll read it right away. If you are passionate about Unix history, you should also get Unix: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...
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- UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan
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- Unix and Linux would be your quintessential examples.
Unix was an effort to take Multics, an operating system that had gotten too modular, and integrate the good parts into a more unified whole (book recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...).
Even though there were some benefits to the modularity of Multics (apparently you could unload and replace hardware in Multics servers without reboot, which was unheard of at the time), it was also its downfall. Multics was eventually deemed over-engineered and too difficult to work with. It couldn't evolve fast enough with the changing technological landscape. Bell Labs' conclusion after the project was shelved was that OSs were too costly and too difficult to design. They told engineers that no one should work on OSs.
Ken Thompson wanted a modern OS so he disregarded these instructions. He used some of the expertise he gained while working on Multics and wrote Unix for himself (in three weeks, in assembly). People started looking over Thompson's shoulder being like "Hey what OS are you using there, can I get a copy?" and the rest is history.
Brian Kernighan described Unix as "one of" whatever Multics was "multiple of". Linux eventually adopted a similar architecture.
More here: https://benoitessiambre.com/integration.html
- UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan.
Brian wrote The C Programming Language (the book), along with many other great books. He worked at Bell Labs during the time of Unix and it's a casual, whimsical telling of some of the history there.
- UNIX: A History and a Memoir | Brian Kernhigan
For me, this book finally told the human story behind so many CLI commands and ideas I'd been using for decades.
https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...
- I really enjoyed reading: UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian W Kernighan
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