AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System

[persia]

It it just me or does the ad bot attach the words "the plug" to an eBay listing for a "vibrating butt plug?"

I used Solaris on a previous job. Ii I remember correctly I had a Sunblade 1500. Really cool machines! And good looking too

I was so happy when I learned about the OpenSolaris project. This project was being promoted by Sun. The OS had some really nice features like Dtrace and the ZFS file system with a "time machine" so you can take snapshop of files and such.

So what happened to this obvious superior OS with a bright future? Oracle happened... After Oracle bought Sun nothing happened with OpenSolaris. It was quiet. And then Oracle decided to pull the plug. OpenSolaris died. I'm still not over this...

[Pentad]

"All?" No. Windows NT derivatives are based on VMS, not Unix; in the pre-NT days, DOS was based on CP/M which was loosely based on RT-11. Unix doesn't really show up anywhere in the Windows family tree, aside from the POSIX subsystem added to NT versions pre-XP.

No, Windows NT was not based on VMS.  This is a common misconception because Dave Cutler and other VMS developers worked on the project.  I've heard this my whole IT career.  You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

DOS was based on QDOS which Microsoft bought from Seattle Computer Products.  QDOS imitated CP/M pretty heavily.  Microsoft bought QDOS and modified it to fit IBM's requirements.  This was then called MS-DOS.  You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS

In all fairness, many companies borrowed heavily from CP/M.  

Gary Kildall wrote CP/M as an OS for the new micro-computers that were beginning to arrive.  CP/M was written in PL/M (a language which he wrote as a Grad Student - I think) and was influenced by the TOPS-10 Operating System.  You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M


Cheers!
-P

[nicholas]

It it just me or does the ad bot attach the words "the plug" to an eBay listing for a "vibrating butt plug?"

It knows what you have previously been looking at on other websites and tailors the ads to you.

[Madshib]

It knows what you have previously been looking at on other websites and tailors the ads to you.

Interesting....that explains a lot on my end.

[huronking]

It makes me smile to see threads like these and remember the 1996-up conversations about OS development where someone always asserted that "operating systems don't want to be Unix when they grow up".

[nicholas]

It makes me smile to see threads like these and remember the 1996-up conversations about OS development where someone always asserted that "operating systems don't want to be Unix when they grow up".

Well, GNU's Not UNIX afterall.

[commodorejohn]

No, Windows NT was not based on VMS.  This is a common misconception because Dave Cutler and other VMS developers worked on the project.  I've heard this my whole IT career.  You can read more about it here:

Okay, I've heard multiple takes on this issue, but it's a fair point that it's not so clear-cut based on it. Regardless, it's certainly not based on Unix.

[mrknight]

It it just me or does the ad bot attach the words "the plug" to an eBay listing for a "vibrating butt plug?"

I have an announcement: I wasn't me!
"My" link reach the same listing apparantly. I wonder how these ads are resolved.

[mrknight]

http://openindiana.org

I've heard of the project for quite some time. Maybe I should check it out now. One reason why I liked OpenSolaris is because of the same because it includes "Solaris". Yes, I am shallow...

[nicholas]

I have an announcement: I wasn't me!
"My" link reach the same listing apparantly. I wonder how these ads are resolved.

Perhaps it uses geolocation and as you are both in Australia it thinks Aussies are in the market for such devices? lol

[LoadWB]

I used Solaris on a previous job. Ii I remember correctly I had a Sunblade 1500. Really cool machines! And good looking too

I was so happy when I learned about the OpenSolaris project. This project was being promoted by Sun. The OS had some really nice features like Dtrace and the ZFS file system with a "time machine" so you can take snapshop of files and such.

So what happened to this obvious superior OS with a bright future? Oracle happened... After Oracle bought Sun nothing happened with OpenSolaris. It was quiet. And then Oracle decided to pull the plug. OpenSolaris died. I'm still not over this...

I very much enjoy Solaris.  Working with Solaris Zones is pretty cool.  Oracle has phuqd it up.  I can't get them to call me back for support licenses for my x64 machines.  Aggravating because you can't download Recommended Clusters without a support contract, anymore.  Thankfully I don't expose any native services to the Internet and compile my own stuff, but that doesn't protect me from local elevation exploits.

One thing I really love about Solaris is all the skript kiddies who try to plant and execute binaries by way of poorly programmed PHP sites: those binaries are always Linux.  Of course, marking certain file systems as non-executable helps, too.

Screw you, Oracle.  Solaris is dead; Long live Solaris!

[LoadWB]

Okay, I've heard multiple takes on this issue, but it's a fair point that it's not so clear-cut based on it. Regardless, it's certainly not based on Unix.

I ignored his Wikipedia articles and went here, instead.

Windows NT and VMS: The Rest of the Story | Windows Client content from Windows IT Pro
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story

And for the OS/2 tie-in:

IBM insider: How I caught my wife while bug-hunting on OS/2 • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/23/why_os2_failed_part_one/

Where were the bullet holes on OS/2's corpse? Its head ... or foot? • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/26/os2_final_fail/

And some interesting history for those who have time to waste:

OS/2 a quarter century on: Why IBM lost out and how Microsoft won • The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/27/the_os_wars_os2_25years_old/

[ferrellsl]

Oops...LoadWB beat me to the punch regarding the crap on Wikipedia....

@Pentad
I'm sorry but you're wrong about NT's roots. And to use Wikipedia as a reference to back you up is laughable and would get you thrown out of any bachelor or masters program for obvious reasons. NT was heavily influenced by VMS and it's designers.  Bill Cutler, the primary designer of VMS was hired by Bill Gates in 1988 along with 20 other former DEC engineers to write NT.  Microsoft developers wrote NT's kernel almost entirely in C. In developing NT, these designers rewrote VMS in C, cleaned it up, tuned, tweaked, and added some new functionality and capabilities as they went. The migration of VMS internals to NT was so thorough that within a few weeks of NT's release, engineers still working at Digital noticed the similarities.

My source is Mark Russinovich, a writer working for Microsoft Press:  http://windowsitpro.com/author/mark-russinovich
So even Microsoft admits that NT was based heavily on VAX/VMS technology.
More info about VMS and its influence on NT can be found here, thanks to Mark:  
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story

[smerf]

That is one of the great things (that remain) about the US, even 'Limeys' are allowed to express their opinions.
Thanks for bringing this up Nik.

Unix and the Internet - two things I watched develop during my High School and early college years via contact with local schools.

Yep, we pretty much paid for it, and now don't own it.
Frustrating.

That is for sure, with the President we have in office, people outside the US have more pull than the Americans who pay taxes. Now 17 to 19 trillion in debt and our illustrious leader gives 7 billion dollars to Africa on his $100,000,000 vacation after laying off I don't know how many American gov't workers due to sequestration.

Only in America

[Fats]

More info about VMS and its influence on NT can be found here, thanks to Mark:  
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story

Looking at so called similarities in table 2 in the article you could probably as well put a UNIX kernel feature next to it and have a similar table. NT is just a product from the common knowledge of OS design at that time.

[gertsy]

Especially when it turned out that Novell owned the rights that SCO were claiming to own.....

SCO owned distribution and usage rights alright as a part of their asset purchase agreement. They just didn't own the copyrights. But they thought they did.

@ferrellsl spot on with VMS and NT.