ICS 54: Brief Notes on Chapter 1: Background

Importance of UNIX

• Historic
• Capabilities
  • Multiuser
  • Multitasking
  • Networked
  • Simple Scaleability
• Technical Model
  • Objects and Actions
  • Virtual Memory and Virtual Processors
  • Hardware - Kernel - Shell - User
• Social/Philosophical Model
  • Simple, General, Extensible
    Examples: Files, Processes, Ownership, Utilities, Shells
  • Open Source
• Portability
• Internet

History of UNIX

• Names to know:
  Thompson, Ritchie, Kernighan, Joy, Stallman, Tanenbaum, Torvalds
• Brief Summary
  • 1969 Murray Hill (NJ), rewritten in C 1973
  • 1975 Berkeley (CA), C shell, virtual memory, Internet
  • 1983 Cambridge (MA), Free Software Foundation
  • 1991 Helsinki (FI), Linux
  • See Nick Moffit's $7 History of Unix (http://crackmonkey.org/unix.html)
• Variants
  • AIX, BSD, {Free,Net,Open}BSD, HPUX, IRIX, Linux, POSIX, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, SVR4, System V, UNIXWARE, XENIX, ...
  • See http://www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/show?I=ugu.flavors
    and http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/talks/azsage/unixfamily.JPG