Unix
Unix is a family of computer operating systems that originated from the original Unix source code developed at Bell Labs in the early 1970s. Initially created by researchers Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, Unix was designed to be an interactive time-sharing system, evolving from earlier challenges faced in developing a project called Multics. The first complete version of Unix was released in 1971, featuring innovations such as a hierarchical file system and basic utility programs. Following its introduction, Unix gained significant traction in academic and research institutions as users were encouraged to modify the source code, leading to numerous variations and adaptations. This collaborative approach allowed operating systems like Linux and Mac OS X to emerge from the Unix lineage. Today, the Unix trademark is held by the Open Group, which oversees its standards and includes prominent organizations like Apple and NASA among its members. Its versatility has allowed Unix and Unix-like systems to run on a diverse range of devices, from supercomputers to personal smartphones, making it a foundational technology in modern computing.
Unix
UNIX is a large family of computer operating systems stemming from the original UNIX source code developed at Bell Labs in the early 1970s. After that source code was initially released for a small fee, numerous developers began creating their own versions of UNIX for both personal use and commercial sale. Soon, universities, computer companies, research institutions, and even government bodies began using UNIX operating systems and further improving the software's functionality and technological capabilities. Since that time—and with decades of continuous development—UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems have been used to run everything from mainframes and supercomputers to personal computers, tablets, and smartphones. Some of the most widely used UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems include Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. Today, the UNIX trademark is held by the Open Group, an industry standards consortium with more than five hundred member organizations, including Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and NASA.
The Genesis of UNIX
The road to UNIX began in the late 1960s when the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T) started a collaborative project with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that was aimed at creating an interactive time-sharing system called the "Multiplexed Information and Computing Service," or "Multics" for short. The proposed purpose of Multics was to allow multiple users to connect with a computer from remote terminals as a means of accessing e-mail, working with text documents, and more. AT&T funded the Multics program for five years before realizing that the project was unrealistically ambitious and withdrawing from the development effort. After AT&T's departure from the Multics program, administrators at the company's Bell Labs development facility suspended all work on operating systems. This was an especially disappointing decision for Bell Labs researchers Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, who, though resigned to Multics' infeasibility, recognized the potential value of operating systems to the future of computing. Undeterred by their superiors' reluctance to explore this realm any further, Thompson, Ritchie, and other researchers continued their efforts to develop an operating system in secret.
Development
After the cancellation of the Multics program, Thompson started writing a computer game called Space Travel in his spare time. Although he initially wrote the program for the GE-645 computer, Thompson found that it ran poorly and was too expensive for the CPU time. Eventually, he rewrote Space Travel to run on a PDP-7 microcomputer. This exercise subsequently led Thompson to begin creating an operating system for the PDP-7 that he largely completed over the summer of 1969. Thompson's colleagues jokingly dubbed the operating system "Un-multiplexed Information and Computing Service," or "Unics" as a way of poking fun at the fact that it was essentially a weakened version of Multics. Sometime later, this pun was reworked into UNIX, which became the operating system's official name.
Eventually, Thompson and Ritchie realized that the already obsolete PDP-7 was no longer sufficient for the development of UNIX. Also aware that Bell Labs' management would still be reluctant to commit any funds to an operating system project, the pair told administrators that they needed a new machine to help them create text editing and formatting tools, which, by implication, would require an operating system. In the end, management acquiesced and ordered the team a PDP-11 in May 1970. When the new machine was up and running, Thompson and his colleagues developed their text formatter and used it to convince Bell Labs to supply them with an even newer and more capable PDP-11, with which they could continue to work covertly on UNIX. Although Thompson's operating system was in a constant state of evolution, the first complete version of UNIX debuted in November 1971.
While it did not include a graphical user interface (GUI), the inaugural version of UNIX represented a major breakthrough in computing. Among its most influential innovations was its hierarchical file system, which allowed users to place individual files in separate directories, or folders, that could then be stored within other directories. The first edition of UNIX also included the line-oriented text editor ed, as well as a number of basic games like chess and tic-tac-toe. By the time it was completed, the UNIX operating system was advanced enough to include the time-sharing capabilities originally intended to be a part of the aborted Multics project.
UNIX Goes Public
UNIX did not leave the confines of Bell Labs until 1974, when a paper on its design and implementation was published in Communications of the ACM. This paper generated a great deal of interest in UNIX and resulted in a deluge of requests for copies of the software. However, because AT&T was bound by a 1956 US government consent decree that prohibited the company from selling any products outside of telephones and telecommunications technologies, it could only sell UNIX by releasing the source code under license to interested buyers for a minimal fee. As a consequence of this unique sales model, AT&T was unable to provide any form of support for UNIX. This forced early users to work together to fix bugs, write new program code, and make other general improvements. The primary clearinghouse for this work was the Usenix user group, where UNIX users could exchange ideas, software, and fixes with one another.
Within just a few years of its public debut, UNIX was in use at universities, research facilities, computer companies, and other institutions across the country and around the world. Because users had the freedom to alter the original source code as they chose, many versions and alternate iterations of UNIX quickly appeared as well. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, numerous vendors created and marketed their own versions of UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems, including Linux and, later, Mac OS X. In 1993, Novell, Inc. purchased the rights to UNIX from AT&T. Later, Novell resold the rights to an industry standards consortium that eventually called itself the Open Group.
Bibliography
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"Introduction to UNIX System." Geeks for Geeks, 9 Sept. 2024, www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-to-unix-system/. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
Love, Paul, Joe Merlino, Jeremy C. Reed, Craig Zimmerman, and Paul Weinstein. Beginning Unix. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2005. Print.
"What Is Unix?" Indiana University Knowledge Base. The Trustees of Indiana University. 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. https://kb.iu.edu/d/agat. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.