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# 2025-08-28 - Unix, 1985 Computer Chronicles
I have been meaning to watch the Unix episode of Computer Chronicles
for years, and finally got around to watching it. It's 28 minutes
long and it's pretty dry in my opinion.
Watch: Unix (1985)
Computer Chronicles (Wikipedia)
Interviewees include:
Bill Joy
Gary Kildall
John Mashey
This episode showcases a unique piece of Unix retrocomputing hardware:
The HP Integral PC. It ran HP-UX from ROM and shipped with well under
1 MB of memory.
HP Integral PC
Another piece of retrocomputing kit in this episde is the Tandy 16B.
> The 16B was the most popular Unix computer in 1984, with almost
> 40,000 units sold.
List of Tandy branded computers (Wikipedia)
A past colleague of mine described setting up a Tandy 6000 for an
auto dealership. I seem to recall he said it had 3 terminals: the
console plus two serial terminals. He said the C compiler was
expensive, so he wrote everything in macro assembler. IIRC, he used
a freeware macro processor to write ASM code in a more C-like way.
Below is S.M. Oliva's blog post about this episode.
# UNIX System V SVR 2, BSD 4.2, and the HP Integral PC
In 1969, a computer scientist at Bell Labs named Ken Thompson wrote
an operating system for a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-7
minicomputer that he initially dubbed /Unics/. This was later renamed
/UNIX/ and continued to be developed at Bell throughout the 1970s,
with each numbered version corresponding to the current edition of
the accompanying /UNIX Programmer's Manual/. In fact, just a few days
ago marked the 50th anniversary of UNIX Version 1, dated
November 3, 1971.
PDP7
UNIX Version 1
Under a 1956 antitrust consent decree with the U.S. Department of
Justice, the Bell System (which owned Bell Labs) could not market
UNIX as a commercial product. Nevertheless, Bell offered highly
restricted UNIX source code licenses to corporate and educational
customers. Basically, these licenses offered UNIX "as is" without any
warranty or commercial support.
One of these early UNIX licensees was the University of California,
Berkeley. While on sabbatical from Bell Labs in 1975, Thompson helped
Berkeley install what was then UNIX version 6. Berkeley then created
its own derivative that became known as the Berkeley Software
Distribution (BSD) 1.0.
Fast forward to 1985. Another federal antitrust case led to the
breakup of the Bell System into AT&T and several regional telephone
companies. One consequence of this was that the 1956 consent decree's
prohibition on marketing commercial products no longer applied. This
meant AT&T, which retained ownership of UNIX, could now offer it as a
commercially supported product. This led to the release of UNIX
System III in 1982, followed by UNIX System V in 1983. (Don't ask me
why there was no System IV.)
This leads into our next /Computer Chronicles/ episode from early
1985, which focused on the current state of UNIX. At this point the
most recent AT&T release was UNIX System V, version 2 (SVR2 or 5.2)
and BSD was now at version 4.2. There were also several other UNIX
derivatives active on the market, such as XENIX (originally developed
by Microsoft and based on System III), SunOS (a BSD 4.2-derivative
used by Sun Microsystems), and the newly created HP-UX (a
Hewlett-Packard System III derivative), which was featured in one of
this episode's product demonstrations.
## Eunuchs on a Computer Show?
Stewart Cheifet did his cold open for this week from some
unidentified facility running a bunch of UNIX machines. We see one
man running an Amdahl 580 mainframe. Cheifet noted that while there
was a time when UNIX was only used on these types of large computer
systems. But nowadays, UNIX was showing on personal computers, such
as the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 16B. Could this mean UNIX will become
the next MS-DOS?
Amdahl 580
In the studio, Cheifet relayed this anecdote to Gary Kildall: "Gary,
I told a friend of mine we were doing a show on UNIX. And he said to
me, 'Why in the world would you want to feature a eunuch on a
computer show?'" The moral of the story, Cheifet said, was that while
some computer people were talking about nothing but UNIX, many
personal computer users didn't even know what UNIX was. So why all
the sudden excitement about UNIX? Kildall replied that the excitement
wasn't really sudden. UNIX itself had been around since the late
1960s. The problem was that microcomputers didn't have the power to
support UNIX in terms of memory, hard disk capacity, processor speed,
and so forth. Now there were micros that did have such power, which
made UNIX a serious contender for an operating system standard.
## Could UNIX Prove Itself on Micros?
Wendy Woods' first remote segment for the week featured B-roll of
UNIX-based computer systems in use at the University of California,
Berkeley. Woods noted the original UNIX developed at Bell Labs in the
1960s was later adopted by the University of California for academic
research and publishing. Here at Berkeley, the history of science
department relied on a network of UNIX terminals to typeset their
journals and directories.
Why use UNIX? Woods said that apart from the fact a major version of
UNIX was developed at Berkeley, UNIX was an eminently portable system
that ran on everything from micros to minis to mainframes. UNIX could
be easily adapted to these different systems with few or no changes
required.
Woods said that the typical UNIX network ran on minicomputers.
User-initiated tasks were distributed among the computers through
port selectors. But the advantages of UNIX were not limited to
multi-user portability. The system was also fast and powerful. Once
the user had mastered UNIX's "unorthodox" commands, Woods said they
were rewarded with some very sophisticated features such as
background processing. This meant that after initiating a task, the
user could initiate a second task while the system continued to work
on the first.
Surrounding the kernel of the UNIX system, Woods said, was a shell or
central command interpreter that redirected applications, controlled
input and output, manipulated files, and stored command sequences.
The shell structure was user-friendly and allowed even a first-time
user to perform complex tasks. Indeed, Woods said that UNIX users
gave the system high marks for versatility, but up until now the
operating system had been largely confined to a small group of
specialized users. The question was whether or not UNIX could prove
its value to the "rest of us."
## "The Normal Behavior Was to Find a Guru or Wizard and Chain Him to
## the Machine"
In the studio, Mark Sobell and John Mashey joined Cheifet and
Kildall. Cheifet asked Kildall to provide a brief background on UNIX.
Kildall explained that UNIX had "come down from" the world of
minicomputers to microcomputers. UNIX carried with it the C
programming language, the UNIX file system, and the UNIX interface.
Kildall noted the C language in particular was wildly successful on a
lot of operating systems, although the user interface still needed to
be addressed, as it was considered unfriendly.
With that, Kildall asked Sobell, the author of
/A Practical Guide to the UNIX System/, to demonstrate an application
that aimed to make UNIX more user friendly. Sobell explained that
UNIX involved using a lot of short commands, as it was originally
designed for terminals that ran slowly off of teletypes. Today, you
were seeing more applications built with user interfaces derived from
MS-DOS. Using an AT&T-branded UNIX workstation, Sobell demonstrated
one application, called File It, which he said incorporated UI
elements from /Lotus 1-2-3/.
Kildall said that one of the ideas pioneered by UNIX was the idea of
software portability--i.e., you could move an application around to
various types of computers. Mashey, who worked on UNIX at Bell Labs
in the early 1970s and was now with MIPS Computer Systems, said that
was probably the most important aspect of UNIX. He said UNIX started
out on some Digital Equipment Corporation machines and had since been
moved to between 50 and 100 different kinds of processors. That was
important because if you were investing a lot of effort to build
software, it was helpful to know that you could move it around, say
from a personal computer to a large mainframe.
Kildall added this was also true for software designers, because they
could take a language like C and its standard runtime library and
write an application that would run on UNIX as well as MS-DOS or
Digital Research's Concurrent DOS. Mashey noted that it was the fact
you could move C programs very easily that also made it possible to
move UNIX to other machines.
Kildall noted that one criticism of UNIX was that it had been
unreliable. Was that still the case? Mashey said he thought UNIX was
fairly reliable these days. He (semi) joked that, "originally when
you got your UNIX system, the normal behavior was to find a guru or
wizard and chain him to the machine," so that someone was there to
pick up the pieces when the computer broke. That was around
1972-1973, he said. But as UNIX started moving into computer centers
and more people depended on it, a lot of work was done to make it a
much more reliable system. Today, UNIX was used in some fairly
demanding applications. He added that one thing many people didn't
realize was that UNIX touched them through the telephone system
almost every day--if you wanted to get your phone fixed, the system
that tracked all that work was run by UNIX.
Cheifet chimed in at this point, noting that while Sobell's earlier
demo showed how you could "friendly up" UNIX to make it look like
MS-DOS, why should the average PC user care? What did they get from a
UNIX-based application that they couldn't get from a DOS application?
Sobell replied that everyone didn't want UNIX. If a user had a DOS
system running their applications and it did what they needed it to,
then maybe UNIX wasn't for them. As for the advantages of UNIX,
Sobell said it was a multi-user operating system. For example, he
could perform a query and look at data while at the same time another
user could change that same data or run a graphics or word processing
package on the same machine. So everyone didn't need to fight over
one machine.
Sobell also reiterated that UNIX was a multi-tasking operating
system. Kildall pointed out that UNIX was no longer the only
microcomputer operating system with that feature. He noted that IBM's
forthcoming TopView would have multi-tasking, and his own Concurrent
DOS did as well. Sobell added that at some point in the future, local
area networking would be a viable alternative to the traditional
multi-user environment. Right now, he said, "You can't plug every
computer into the same network." But that was something to watch for
in the future.
Kildall ended the segment by bringing up the subject of graphics. He
said that assuming TopView would address the problem of a
standardized graphics interface, at least as far as the PC was
concerned, what would that mean in terms of the evolving UNIX
standard for graphics display? Mashey said at this point it was hard
to tell. UNIX was originally designed for fairly slow-speed
terminals. That was still its standard interface. UNIX had also
become fairly standard in its handling of CRT displays. But work
still needed to be done in the graphics standards.
## Bill Joy on the Future of BSD and Its "Open Source Code"
Before returning to the studio for the final round table, Wendy Woods
presented her second remote feature, this time on Sun Microsystems
and one of its co-founders, Bill Joy, who was also behind the
Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) 4.2 version of UNIX. Woods said
the success of BSD could be measured by the success of Sun itself,
which produced a line of minicomputers and workstations based on the
4.2 release. Woods noted that Sun had grown from 6 to 1,000 employees
in just three years. The company currently shipped more than $7
million in equipment each month, primarily to the technology and
engineering communities, which found BSD 4.2 the ideal operating
environment for their specialized software needs.
Despite this success, however, Woods said Joy wasn't allowing BSD 4.2
to stagnate. He continued to work closely with his university roots
to improve upon UNIX. Joy told Woods that UNIX had hit the point
where we were "starting to get standardized by standards committees"
and there was an attempt by major corporations like IBM and AT&T to
control development. That inevitably meant slowing down the rate of
change in the operating system.
Regarding the future of BSD, Woods said its "open source code,"
versatility, and ability to work on a variety of machines meant it
would remain popular with scientists and engineers for some time. Joy
added that UNIX would be important if it could deliver applications
that people wanted to run. The technology market needed more
operating system capabilities than you were likely to see from the
smaller systems. In that sense, Joy said there really wasn't an
alternative application delivery vehicle at the moment.
But would UNIX ever make it big in the business market, Woods asked
in narration. She said Joy doubted it. He said what would be needed
was a UNIX-based program like /Lotus 1-2-3/--something big and
successful. And until that was written, Joy was not super hopeful
about UNIX's future as a business OS.
## Why Were There So Many Versions of UNIX?
Back in the studio, Doug Hartman and Mike Denney joined Cheifet and
Kildall. Hartman was a UNIX specialist with Hewlett-Packard, which
had recently released a new UNIX-based microcomputer, the HP Integral
PC. Kildall opened by noting that microcomputer users now expected
some form of graphical animated communication with their programs.
Hartman said the Integral relied on "Windows menus" to give the user
a friendlier UI.
HP Integral PC
The HP Integral PC, a portable computer featuring a detachable
keyboard, a small black-and-amber screen, and a 3.5-inch floppy disk
drive attached to the side of the monitor. [And a built-in printer.]
Sticking to his main talking point from earlier, Cheifet asked how
this made UNIX special, given that non-UNIX computers could do some
of this stuff as well. Hartman, also sticking to the talking points,
said UNIX offered compatibility with other machines and software
portability. He said the idea that you could take programs written on
one machine and bring them to another UNIX machine with very little
effort made by the software developer's job easier.
Cheifet then asked if his guests could clear up the confusion
regarding the different UNIX variants. He listed just a few: BSD 4.2,
Xenix, UNIX, HP-UX, PCIX, System III, and System V. "Why are there so
many versions of UNIX?," he asked. Denney replied, "Just luck."
Denney, the co-founder of a company called Basis, Inc., explained
that the proliferation of names besides UNIX was dictated by AT&T's
requirement that you not call any of the derivatives UNIX. This meant
every manufacturer had to come up with their own name. For the most
part, however, everything was fairly standard. A Xenix machine looked
like UNIX to him. It might have a few extras here and there, but to
move even between the BSD and AT&T camps of UNIX showed they were
very strikingly the same.
Kildall asked why system programmers felt the need to make local
changes? He then managed to answer his own question by citing
something that happened at Digital Research. Kildall said he walked
into his computer center one night and asked one of the programmers
about an I/O statement that wasn't working right. The programmer then
made changes right there and compiled it on the spot. This meant they
were now running a different operating system. Denney noted that
everyone "improved" the UNIX recipe that they received from
grandma--or in this case, Ma Bell--and in particular, computer
manufacturers received original UNIX source code and implemented it
for different target markets.
Kildall asked about AT&T's role in all this. Were they trying to
bring all of these different versions back into one standard? Denney
said it was quite apparent that AT&T would like to define System V
SVR 2 (5.2) as the standard. But there was also the competing BSD 4.2
standard. They were actually quite different in terms of the
underlying code, although they looked similar to the outside user,
with the difference of some utilities. Indeed, Denney said it was
quite common for manufacturers to adopt System V but put BSD
utilities on top as extensions.
Kildall added that IBM also supported a couple different versions of
UNIX. Was this just to fill the market out or were they really
getting behind it? After all, IBM and AT&T were competitors. Denney
said he wasn't sure but pointed out that AT&T did use IBM computers
in its organization.
Cheifet turned back to Hartman and asked about HP-UX, which was
Hewlett-Packard's implementation of UNIX on the Integral PC. Cheifet
noted this was a $5,000 PC. And earlier, Cheifet said Mark Sobell
used an AT&T machine priced between $12,000 and $15,000. Did we lose
anything in the implementation of UNIX on these lower-cost machines?
Hartman said the one thing left out of the Integral was the hard
drive, which would allow the user to do their own program
development. But by leaving out the hard drive, that allowed HP to
reduce cost while leaving the user enough memory to run
applications.
Cheifet said he'd read in the trade papers recently that Commodore
had plans to come out with a "Mac lookalike" running UNIX. Was that
possible? Hartman said the technology was certainly there to do such
a machine. It was a question of if the applications were there to
support the home user. Kildall remarked that if this rumor were true,
Commodore's machine would have to be different than the standard
computer they sold at K-Mart.
The main part of the episode then concluded with yet another
discussion of the relative advantages of UNIX over other operating
systems, which largely reiterated the earlier talking points.
## "The Wrong Tool in the Wrong Place"
Paul Schindler's commentary can be summed up by this statement: "UNIX
is the wrong tool in the wrong place in the micro world." He argued
that UNIX was nothing more than a development environment for
minicomputers. But using it on a micro was akin to using a
screwdriver to open a can of tomato juice instead of a can opener
(which he demonstrated). Schindler largely dismissed UNIX's
advantages in terms of software portability, noting that there were
"incompatible UNIX dialects galore," and UNIX was ultimately a
"user-hostile operating system" that was dramatically short on
software.
## H-P Managed to Pack UNIX Down Onto a Single ROM Chip
UNIX was a heavy operating system by the microcomputer standards of
the time. For example the Commodore 64, the most popular home
computer around 1984-1985, had a built-in ROM that contained both the
computer's operating system and the BASIC programming language on a
single 16 KB chip. In contrast, the HP Integral PC seen in this
episode came with a 256 KB ROM that included the HP-UX operating
system and the accompanying user interface. Of course, the Integral
PC started somewhere around $5,000 while the Commodore 64 could be
had for around $150 by early 1985.
And Hewlett-Packard had to put quite a bit of work to make a UNIX
operating system fit onto a 256 KB ROM. Keep in mind, UNIX
traditionally required a hard drive, as the typical size of a full
installation was around 6 MB. As Doug Hartman explained, HP decided
to forego the hard drive to keep costs down, so instead the engineers
decided to build what they described as a "RAM-based emulation of a
disc device" to mount the UNIX root file system.
In a Hewlett-Packard Journal article detailing the Integral PC's
development, Ray M. Fajardo, Andrew L. Rood, James R. Andrews, and
Robert C. Cline claimed they had developed the "first RAM disc for a
personal computer to manage its own space" dynamically. This meant
unused RAM disc space was not "statically allocated" and could be
"periodically freed for use by the rest of the system." The authors
claimed this actually made the RAM disc perform better than a hard
drive as there was no "time-consuming mechanical head movement."
Hewlett-Packard Journal, Oct 1985
The authors also decided to eliminate the traditional UNIX practice
of storing data in an "intermediate buffer" before writing it to
disc, which they said made the file system "extremely susceptible to
corruption," especially if the user suddenly removed a disc. For this
reason, the Integral PC "immediately posted" all user data to disc
without using any buffer, so that if the user pulled the disc out
suddenly it would not damage the file system. The Integral also
contained special processes for automatically mounting removable
discs, which was not standard UNIX practice at the time.
I don't get the sense that HP managed to sell that many Integral PCs.
As one writer, Nick Walker of Personal Computer World, noted in his
June 1985 review of the Integral, "If a UNIX machine was what you are
looking for, then this may well be the cheapest way of obtaining one
with the added advantage of portability, although higher-priced UNIX
machines will be muti-user and higher performance." Walker added that
he was initially skeptical about a ROM-based UNIX system, but he
thought HP had managed to create a "machine that makes an awful lot
of computer power easy to use."
Integral PC Review, Personal Computer World, Jun 1985, p.144
While the Integral PC might not have been a market blockbuster, the
HP-UX derivative of UNIX proved to have significant staying power.
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise continues to develop the operating system
for servers up until the present day.
## The Looming UNIX Wars
Although Bill Joy came from Berkeley, the other co-founders of Sun
Microsystems were from Stanford University. ("Sun" was derived from
the initials of the "Stanford University Network.") During the 1980s,
Sun was known as the place to buy UNIX-based workstations. According
to a history published by FundingUniverse, Sun was the
"fastest-growing company in the United States" between 1985 and 1989,
with a "compound annual growth rate of 145 percent."
As Wendy Woods noted, much of that success was powered by Bill Joy's
work on BSD 4.2 and its associated utilities. This ultimately led to
a 1987 alliance with AT&T in an attempt to unify the BSD and System V
code bases. That, in turn, led to the so-called "UNIX wars." I won't
go into detail on this right now, but suffice to say there were other
UNIX licensees who were opposed to the AT&T-Sun alliance. These
licensees created a new organization, the Open Software Foundation,
to promote a competing standard.
To make a very long story short, the UNIX wars led to the creation of
new BSD derivatives that did not use any of the copyrighted AT&T UNIX
code. These BSD derivatives are still in active use and development
today under a number of projects, notably FreeBSD, NetBSD, and
OpenBSD.
As for AT&T, it ended development of System V after version 4 and
transitioned to a joint venture with Novell to make a new UNIX system
called UnixWare. Novell later took over the project on its own before
transferring it to the Santa Cruz Operation in the mid-1990s.
Meanwhile, Sun continued to develop its own SunOS, re-basing its
later releases on System V and renaming the project Solaris. After
Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, it renamed the operating
system Oracle Solaris.
From: https://www.smoliva.blog/post/computer-chronicles-revisited-032-system-v-…
tags: retrocomputing,technical,unix,video
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