A Quarter Century of UNIX (Addison-Wesley UNIX and Open Systems Series)

On June 12, 1972, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie wrote, "The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected." Two years later the number was 50. It is estimated that there are over 3 million UNIX systems in operation today...UNIX is a software system that is simple, elegant, portable, and powerful. It grew in popularity without the benefit of a large marketing organization. Programmers kept using it; big companies kept fighting it. After a decade, it was clear that the users had won. A Quarter Century of UNIX is the first book to explain this incredible success, using the words of its creators, developers and users to illustrate how the sociology of a technical group can overwhelm the intent of multi-billion-dollar corporations. In preparing to write this book, Peter Salus interviewed over 100 of these key figures and gathered relevant information from Australia to Austria. This is the book that turns UNIX folklore into UNIX history.Features* Provides the first documented history of the development of the UNIX operating system* Includes interviews with over 100 key figures in the UNIX community* Contains classic photos and illustrations* Explains why UNIX succeededPeter H. Salus is an internationally recognized UNIX enthusiast. He is the managing editor of the quarterly journal, Computing Systems. He regularly contributes to the computer press and conducts the "The Bookworm" in the USENIX newsletter, ;login:. He is the author of a number of books, articles and reviews. Salus has an undergraduate in Chemistry, a master's in Germanic Languages, and a doctorate in Linguistics from New York University.

On June 12, 1972, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie wrote, "the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected." Two years later the number was 50. It is estimated that there are over 3 million UNIX systems in operation today ...

UNIX is a software system that is simple, elegant, portable, and powerful. It grew in popularity without the benefit of a large marketing organization. Programmers kept using it; big companies kept fighting it. After a decade, it was clear that the users had won. A Quarter Century of UNIX is the first book to explain this incredible success, using the words of its creators, developers, and users to illustrate how the sociology of a technical group can overwhelm the intent of multi-billion-dollar corporations. In preparing to write this book, Peter Salus interviewed over 100 of these key figures and gathered relevant information from Australia to Austria. This is the book that turns UNIX folklore into UNIX history.

The book provides the first documented history of the development of the UNIX operating system, includes interviews with over 100 key figures in the UNIX community, contains classic photos and illustrations, and explains why UNIX succeeded.

A Quarter Century of UNIX presents the history of UNIX. Based on interviews with the key software engineers who invented and built this powerful operating system, this book provides unique insight into the most important operating system in the modern computing environment.

UNIX is a software system that is simple, elegant, portable, and powerful. It grew in popularity without the benefit of a large marketing organization. Programmers kept using it; big companies kept fighting it. After a decade, it was clear that the users had won. A Quarter Century of UNIX is the first book to explain this incredible success, using the words of its creators, developers and users to illustrate how the sociology of a technical group can overwhelm the intent of multi-billion-dollar corporations. In preparing to write this book, Peter Salus interviewed over 100 of these key figures and gathered relevant information from Australia to Austria. This is the book that turns UNIX folklore into UNIX history. . Features: provides the first documented history of the development of the UNIX operating system, includes interviews with over 100 key figures in the UNIX community, contains classic photos and illustrations, and explains why UNIX succeeded. Introduction Part 1: Genesis 0 Prelude to Space 1 Summer 1969-Fall 1970 2 Calculating and Computing 3 Operating Systems 4 Project MAC: CTSS and Multics Part 2 Birth of a System 5 The PDP-11 6 First Edition, 1971 7 C and Pipes: 1971-1973 8 The First Paper-1973 9 The Law-Part I Status 1974 Part 3 What makes UNIX Unix? 10 The Users 11 Why Unix? 12 Style and Tools 13 PWB and MERT 14 Utilities Part 4 Unix Spreads and Blossoms 15 The Users-Part II 16 Berkeley Unix: Part I 17 Version 7 18 Berkeley Unix: Part II 19 Commercial Unix 20 DEC 21 The Law-Part II Part 5 The Unix Industry 22 /usr/group 23 Sun and JAWS 24 Standards Part 6 The Currents of Change 25 Duelling Unixes 26 Offspring Systems 27 OSF and UI 28 Berkeley Unix: After the VAX 29 The Law-Part III Finale Finale: What Made It Work? Further Reading Who's Who and What's What Index This work explores the development of UNIX, the dominant system in the commercial computing world - responsible for the development of the C programming language and the modern networked environment - and the computer scientists involved. Peter Salus is a recognized spokesman for UNIX.