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Unix Basics

Unix was first developed in 1969 at Bell Labs as a multi-user operating system for when computers were large and rare. It became widely used outside of Bell Labs when they freely distributed the source code. The University of Berkeley significantly improved Unix's performance and usability. Unix played a key role in the development of the internet and the first web server was a NeXT cube, which ran a Unix operating system. By the early 1990s, legal issues arose around ownership of Unix due to many free improvements being integrated, creating an opportunity for another free operating system to emerge.

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36 views

Unix Basics

Unix was first developed in 1969 at Bell Labs as a multi-user operating system for when computers were large and rare. It became widely used outside of Bell Labs when they freely distributed the source code. The University of Berkeley significantly improved Unix's performance and usability. Unix played a key role in the development of the internet and the first web server was a NeXT cube, which ran a Unix operating system. By the early 1990s, legal issues arose around ownership of Unix due to many free improvements being integrated, creating an opportunity for another free operating system to emerge.

Uploaded by

Kamal Prasad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unix Basics

History
The first version of Unix was developed by Bell Labs (part of AT&T) in 1969, making it more
than
forty years old and one of the few cases of a computer technology that has survived more than
a
decade. Its roots go back to when computers were large and rare, time on them very expensive
and
shared between many users Unix was designed from the beginning1 to have multiple users
working
simultaneously. While this might seem strange and unnecessary in a world where everyone has
their
own laptop, computing is again moving back to remote central services with many users: the
compute
power required for mapping next-generation sequencing data or de novo assembly is beyond
what is
available or desirable to have sitting on your lap. In many ways, the Cloud (or what ever has
replaced
it by the time you read this) requires ways of working that are more in common with traditional
Unix
machines than the personal computing emphasised by Windows and Apple Macintosh.
USA federal monopoly law prevented AT&T from commercialising Unix but interest in using it
increased outside of Bell Labs and eventually they decided to give it away freely, including the
source
code, which allowed other institutions to modify it. Perhaps the most important of these
institutions
was the University of Berkeley2 which distributed a set of tools to make Unix more useful and
made
changes that significantly increased performance. The involvement of several universities in its
development meant Unix was ideally placed when the internet was created and many of the
fundamental technologies were developed and tested using Unix machines. Again these
improvements
were given away freely, some of the code being repurposed to provided networking for early
versions of
Windows and even today several utilities in Windows Vista incorporate Berkeley code3.
As well as being a key part in the development of the early internet, a Unix machine was also
the
first web server, a NeXT cube4. NeXT was an early attempt to make a Unix machine for desktop
use,
extremely advanced for its time but also very expensive so they never really caught on outside
of the
finance industry. Apple eventually bought NeXT, its operating system becoming OsX, and this
heritage can still be seen in its programming interfaces. Apple is now the largest manufacturer
of Unix
machines; every Apple computer, the iPhone and most recent iPods have a Unix base
underneath
their facade.
By the early 90s Unix became increasingly commercially important which inevitably lead to legal
trouble: with so many people giving away improvements freely and having them integrated into
the
system, who actually owned it? The legal trouble cast uncertainty over the freely available Unix
versions, creating an opening for another free operating system.

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