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<title>Impressions reading Peter H. Salus `A Quarter Century of UNIX' Issue 21</title>
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<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<center>
<H2> Impressions reading Peter H. Salus `A Quarter Century of UNIX' </H2>
<H4> By Leif Erlingsson <<a href="mailto:leif@lege.com">leif@lege.com</a>> </H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
I have been involved with Unix and the Internet since '88, and
with Linux since '95, but it isn't until reading Peter H.
Salus' `A Quarter Century of UNIX' during this summer vacation
that I see where Linux fits in into the last 25 years of
operating systems development.
<p>
Unix came about as a revolt against cumbersome propriety
operating systems shipped by the various hardware-vendors.
In contrast, Unix was developed by a handful of people. An
example of a "huge" software project in the development of
Unix is `awk'--developed by three people.
<p>
UNICS (original name) was developed at Bell Telephone
Laboratories in the Summer 1969 - Fall 1970. Ken Thompson was
the initiator and Dennis Ritchie and Rudd Canaday were active
contributors.
<br> The intent was to create a pleasant computing environment for
themselves. The hope was that others would like it also.
The basic notion at the Labs (in Dennis Ritchie's words as
quoted from the book),
<UL><p><DL>
was and is to hire people who generate their own
good ideas and carry them out....
</DL><p></UL>
The Bell Telephone Laboratories staff (BTL) were supposed to
discover or invent new things. There was always management
encouragement.
<p>
It turned out Unix was easy to use and understand when
compared to the competition. It was extremely compact. It
wasn't until much later that anything and everything the user
wanted was supplied (like vi, emacs, X, ksh, csh,... :-)).
<p>
The single most important factor behind Unix' popularity was
that in the beginning the source code was practically free.
Thus it was used in education and as a base for derivate
systems. The universities loved it. Later, when AT&T realized
that they had in Unix something of great value and tried to
capitalize on that, universities were forbidden to use the
source code in education. This motivated Andy Tanenbaum to write
MINIX, from whence Linus Torvalds got his inspiration to write a
kernel for his Intel 386, the kernel that later became Linux.
<p>
Bell Telephone Laboratories (50/50 owned by AT&T and Western
Electric Company) was, by the so called "consent decree" of
Jan 24, 1956 (entered into because of the Sherman Antitrust
Act and a complaint filed by the Department of Justice in
Jan 14, 1949), required to reveal what patents it held and
supply information about them to competitors. Also, the terms
of the decree required BTL to license to anyone at nominal fees.
So we have this "consent decree" to thank for the phenomenal
spread of Unix!
<p>
BTL had the following support policy:
<UL><p><DL>
no advertising
<br> no support
<br> no bug fixes
<br> payment in advance
</DL><p></UL>
This forced the users to band together, which resulted in
better and more responsive support than any vendor could have
managed. Also, an "us" (users) against "them" (vendors)
mentality formed, reinforced by actions taken by AT&T to
stifle "the Unix problem".
<p>
This is very important: Unix begat Internet!
<p>
For a long time no one in business took Unix seriously.
For AT&T it was just a legal problem. It was run on VAX'es,
but it took the Digital Equipment Corporation about a decade
to learn how to support a Unix system as opposed to a Virtual
Machine system because of the NIH syndrome. (NIH = Not
Invented Here.)
<p>
Does it sound like Linux or does it [sound like Linux] ? :-)
<p>
On 20 Nov 1974, the U.S. government filed a new antitrust
action against AT&T, Western Electric, and Bell Telephone
Labs. The settlement reached in 1984 dissolved Western
Electric, formed the "Baby Bells" and reorganized AT&T Bell
Laboratories into Bell Telephone Labs.
<p>
AT&T was now permitted to enter the hardware and software
computer business. AT&T sharply raised Unix license fees ...
<p>
One reaction was Richard M. Stallman's Free Software Foundation
with it's GNU (Gnu is Not Unix) project, that has given the
world a wealth of free versions of Unix systems programs.
Another is Keith Bostic's CSRG project to create a license
free version of Unix. Today, all free Unix clones except
Linux use the CSRG code, and all free Unix clones use the GNU
code, Linux included.
<p>
This is very important: Internet begat GNU and CSRG, and
therefore the free Unixes, Linux included. And Unix begat
Internet, so therefore,
<!-- in the biblical sense, -->
Unix begat
Linux. Also, as we all know, Linux is continually developed
on the Internet by a looseknit band of programmers from around
the world, each doing their little piece -- truly users banded
together!
<p>
So where do Microsoft and others fit into this picture?
DOS/Windows is just one of many systems sprung out of the
fountain of Truth -- though there is much debate as to how
much truth has rubbed off on them. :-)
<p>
There is a huge cultural barrier between the Unix camp and
the other guys. It took DEC a decade before the DEC Unix
Engineering Group was formed, and when it was, it was located
in a separate location from the rest of the company.
<p>
Salus tells the story in the book:
<br> there was a lot of animosity towards Unix up and down the
company at DEC. Armando Stettner relates how Dave Cutler,
one of DEC's engineering elite, at one point got two Unix
engineers, Armando Stettner himself and Bill Shannon, to
drive down to his office 20 minutes away to help him with,
Armando thinks it was, some SRI package on top of VMS.
They got there and Cutler was in his office. Armando and
Bill sat down at a terminal, and it just didn't do what
they expected it to do. Cutler asked them how it was, and
Armando replied that it didn't work. To this Cutler said
"Well, thank you very much" and they were dismissed.
Cutler then called their Senior Group Manager and chewed
him out and said Armando and Bill were sorry excuses for
engineers and he never wanted to see them in Spitbrook
(his office) again. Armando believes that Cutler's
disdain has been reflected in his work ever since.
Armando says:
<UL><p><DL>
Cutler was doing yet another OS based on a new
architecture called Prism, not Unix, during
Digital's internal RISC wars. Initially,
Cutler's OS wasn't portable, but was culturally
compatible with VMS. There is a lot of stuff
in NT that I think can be traced to Prism.
[Cutler went to work for Microsoft around 1983.]
</DL><p></UL>
<br>
<p>
To round this off I'd like to itemize a few general factors
for the success of Unix:
<UL><p><DL>
Simplicity
<p>
Small projects
<p>
No restrictions put on creativity
<p>
Freedom
<p>
Free source
<p>
Fun
<p>
Collect a lot of great ideas that are around plus
some original ideas and put them together in a very
interesting, powerful way.
<p>
Users supporting themselves
<p>
Internet
<p>
Portability
<p>
Universality
<p>
Stability -- i.e., the antithesis of the continuous
change needed to keep the DOS/Windows personal computer
market alive. System programs don't need to change.
Well designed OS's don't need fundamental changes.
No need to do Windows 95 this year, Windows 97 the next
and then NT. Just stick with what works!
<p>
"Us against them" -- thanks AT&T, DEC and Microsoft!
</DL><p></UL>
<br>
<p>
There must be a fundamental difference of thinking between
the free software camp and the other guys:
<p>
The first mind-set is to share in order to gain. The other
mind-set is hoarding out of fear that something is going to be
taken away. Out of the latter mind-set springs the correct
business-types managing their various copy-protected products,
while from the sharing win-win culture, where each person's
efforts becomes a multiplier toward a common goal, springs an
open and nonconformistic, somewhat anarchistic type of person.
The two often do not like or understand each other.
<p>
<br>
<p>
(This article is copyright Leif Erlingsson. As long as
this copyright notice is preserved, and any cuts clearly
marked as such, the author hereby gives his consent to
any and everybody to use this text.)
<p>
(The book `A Quarter Century of UNIX' is Copyright 1994 by
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.)
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Leif Erlingsson <BR>
Published in Issue 21 of the Linux Gazette, September 1997</H5></center>
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