:UNIX:: /yoo'niks/ [In the authors' words, "A weak pun on
Multics"] n. (also `Unix') An interactive time-sharing system
invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson after Bell Labs left the Multics
project, originally so he could play games on his scavenged PDP-7.
Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of C, is considered a co-author of the
system. The turning point in UNIX's history came when it was
reimplemented almost entirely in C during 1972--1974, making it the
first source-portable OS. UNIX subsequently underwent mutations
and expansions at the hands of many different people, resulting in
a uniquely flexible and developer-friendly environment. By 1991,
UNIX had become the most widely used multiuser general-purpose
operating system in the world. Many people consider this the most
important victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition (but
see {UNIX weenie} and {UNIX conspiracy} for an opposing point
of view). See {Version 7}, {BSD}, {USG UNIX}.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
Unix /yoo'niks/ n.
[In the authors' words, "A weak pun
on Multic very early on it was `UNICS'] (also `UNIX') An
interactive time-sharing system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson
after Bell Labs left the Multics project, originally so he could
play games on his scavenged PDP-7....
