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For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.g

For the uninitiated, Brian Kernighan also wrote a book titled "Unix: A History and a Memoir" published in 2019. Would recommend. Goodreads Link - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53011383-unix

gorbypark 6y ago
I'd also recommend his book, it was an excellent read. Do you know of any more books that are similar? Historical and a little bit "technical"?
- arexxbifs 6y ago
  Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall is highly recommended.
- greenyoda 6y ago
  The Soul of a New Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
  - 2sk21 6y ago
    Not very technical but absolutely essential reading. This book is the main reason I became a programmer.
- vmilner 6y ago
  Peter Salus's "A quarter century of Unix" and "The Daemon, the Gnu and the Penguin" Katie Hafner "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of The Internet"
- sanxiyn 6y ago
  I enjoyed G. Pascal Zachary's "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT".
  - vram22 6y ago
    There was also a book called Inside Windows NT by Helen Custer, IIRC. Had some good tech details. Had read it.
- cptnapalm 6y ago
  Two which I found very readable while also being very technical: "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems" by Emerson Pugh.
  - sien 6y ago
    IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems is available on the internet archive. It's pretty pricey otherwise. https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh
    - cptnapalm 6y ago
      It's completely worth it, though. It's a surprising contender for "favorite book".
- khaledh 6y ago
  The Dream Machine I recommended this book before here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22692281 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22692281
- cat199 6y ago
  The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll documents one of the 1st cases of cybercrime on the 80s ARPANET that eventually led to US-CERT, etc.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  "Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, The, 2nd Edition" https://www.informit.com/store/design-and-implementation-of-the-freebsd-operating-9780321968975 https://www.informit.com/store/design-and-implementation-of-... Marshall Kirk McKusick has done some talks on the subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEEr6dT-4uQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEEr6dT-4uQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbMBdGPoHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbMBdGPoHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQe-nnJPNF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQe-nnJPNF8
- chubot 6y ago
  The Idea Factory by Gertner was great, and in fact Kernighan's memoir specifically recommended it for more detail on Bell Labs! https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797 https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovatio... Search for the many HN comments about this 2013 book: https://www.google.com/search?q=idea+factory+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=idea+factory+site%3Anews.yco...
- leoc 6y ago
  Steven Levy's Hackers of course, but also his Crypto which is in some ways even better. Michael A. Hiltzik's Dealers of Lightning about the heyday of computing research at Xerox PARC isn't universally praised (IIRC it's more or less Bob Metcalfe's version of the story) but it is very readable. Bob Johnstone's We Were Burning, about the golden age of Japanese consumer electronics (wich also covers many events and actors in the US and UK). David Kushner's Masters of Doom, about the heyday of Id Software. The First Computers—History and Architectures is a more academic book, a selection of history papers, but it's still very readable. The Computer Pioneers: Pioneer Computers videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik&list=PL14396C9538B4C234&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik&list=PL14396C953... , presented by Gordon Moore himself, cover much of the same ground (it says little about the wartime Bletchley Park computers). If I'm going to allow myself some videos then I should also mention Steve Blank "Secret History of Silicon Valley" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo and David Alan Grier's "When Computers Were Human" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqltwvPnkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqltwvPnkw .
- ghaff 6y ago
  The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks about the IBM 360. Some of the essays are more relevant today than others but worth at least selectively reading.
  - vram22 6y ago
    Yes, and there is an anniversary edition. The book is mentioned in Wikipedia.
- sien 6y ago
  How the Internet Happened (2018) by Brian McCullough https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212134-how-the-internet-happened?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=HULtDlwauh&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212134-how-the-interne... The 'Internet History Podcast' that was made while writing the book is also excellent. The Friendly Orange Glow (2017) by Brian Dear is also very good. He's also on HN. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-orange-glow?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8PR2IkChP7&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-or... Accidental Empires (1996) by Robert X Cringely is also pretty good: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=SAMsiz5BEB&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires...
  - Naac 6y ago
    Would you say these are as technical as Kernighan's book?
    - sien 6y ago
      Yep. But I wouldn't say Kernighan's book was technical. I enjoyed Kernighan's book though. These books go into about as much detail. It's more technical history.
- vram22 6y ago
  There probably are many, you have to name your poison and search for books about it. Almost any really major technology or tech company likely has had a book or two written about it. Some examples off the top of my head: The HP Way The IBM Way The New Magicians (Microsoft) Heard of Fire in The Valley but not read it The Soul of a New Machine Hackers by Steven Levy Sure to be many books about Unix The Art of Unix Programming (more on tech, but a good amount of history) There probably are more books about (in no particular order): Dell, Sun Micro, Compaq, DEC, Novell, SCO, IBM, Wordstar, WordPerfect, Lotus (both company and tech), dBASE, Borland, Microsoft, AutoCAD, Adobe, HP, Silicon Graphics, Tandem, Ardent, Amdahl, Wang, Toshiba, Acer, Sony, Sinclair, Commodore, Atari, Acorn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Amazon, Netflix, Apple and a host of lesser-known or older companies, both in the US and elsewhere. The list above has non-US companies too. It's fun to read about the history of our field. I keep doing a bit of it now and then.
heavyavocado 6y ago
Heard great things about it and really want to read it. However, a warning to anyone thinking of getting this book on kindle: It's unreadable. It literally will not download on a kindle device. Just purchased it recently but will have to refund.
- IvyMike 6y ago
  You are correct--it is pretty disappointing they haven't made it available on normal kindle devices. That being said, I think you will be able to read it on the kindle player on a desktop computer. At least, that worked for me. I admit this is not ideal, but the book is fantastic and it was worth the extra effort.
- agbell 6y ago
  I had this same problem. I does work on the kindle app for desktop. Funny thing about the book, it was made using troff, one of the original unix utilities.

gorbypark 6y ago

I'd also recommend his book, it was an excellent read. Do you know of any more books that are similar? Historical and a little bit "technical"?

arexxbifs 6y ago
Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall is highly recommended.
greenyoda 6y ago
The Soul of a New Machine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
- 2sk21 6y ago
  Not very technical but absolutely essential reading. This book is the main reason I became a programmer.
vmilner 6y ago
Peter Salus's "A quarter century of Unix" and "The Daemon, the Gnu and the Penguin" Katie Hafner "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of The Internet"
sanxiyn 6y ago
I enjoyed G. Pascal Zachary's "Showstopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT".
- vram22 6y ago
  There was also a book called Inside Windows NT by Helen Custer, IIRC. Had some good tech details. Had read it.
cptnapalm 6y ago
Two which I found very readable while also being very technical: "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems" by Emerson Pugh.
- sien 6y ago
  IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems is available on the internet archive. It's pretty pricey otherwise. https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh
  - cptnapalm 6y ago
    It's completely worth it, though. It's a surprising contender for "favorite book".
khaledh 6y ago
The Dream Machine I recommended this book before here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22692281 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22692281
cat199 6y ago
The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll documents one of the 1st cases of cybercrime on the 80s ARPANET that eventually led to US-CERT, etc.
pjmlp 6y ago
"Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, The, 2nd Edition" https://www.informit.com/store/design-and-implementation-of-the-freebsd-operating-9780321968975 https://www.informit.com/store/design-and-implementation-of-... Marshall Kirk McKusick has done some talks on the subject. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEEr6dT-4uQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEEr6dT-4uQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbqBdghh6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbMBdGPoHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbMBdGPoHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQe-nnJPNF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQe-nnJPNF8
chubot 6y ago
The Idea Factory by Gertner was great, and in fact Kernighan's memoir specifically recommended it for more detail on Bell Labs! https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovation/dp/0143122797 https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Factory-Great-American-Innovatio... Search for the many HN comments about this 2013 book: https://www.google.com/search?q=idea+factory+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=idea+factory+site%3Anews.yco...
leoc 6y ago
Steven Levy's Hackers of course, but also his Crypto which is in some ways even better. Michael A. Hiltzik's Dealers of Lightning about the heyday of computing research at Xerox PARC isn't universally praised (IIRC it's more or less Bob Metcalfe's version of the story) but it is very readable. Bob Johnstone's We Were Burning, about the golden age of Japanese consumer electronics (wich also covers many events and actors in the US and UK). David Kushner's Masters of Doom, about the heyday of Id Software. The First Computers—History and Architectures is a more academic book, a selection of history papers, but it's still very readable. The Computer Pioneers: Pioneer Computers videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik&list=PL14396C9538B4C234&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik&list=PL14396C953... , presented by Gordon Moore himself, cover much of the same ground (it says little about the wartime Bletchley Park computers). If I'm going to allow myself some videos then I should also mention Steve Blank "Secret History of Silicon Valley" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo and David Alan Grier's "When Computers Were Human" talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqltwvPnkw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwqltwvPnkw .
ghaff 6y ago
The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks about the IBM 360. Some of the essays are more relevant today than others but worth at least selectively reading.
- vram22 6y ago
  Yes, and there is an anniversary edition. The book is mentioned in Wikipedia.
sien 6y ago
How the Internet Happened (2018) by Brian McCullough https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212134-how-the-internet-happened?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=HULtDlwauh&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38212134-how-the-interne... The 'Internet History Podcast' that was made while writing the book is also excellent. The Friendly Orange Glow (2017) by Brian Dear is also very good. He's also on HN. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-orange-glow?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8PR2IkChP7&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34373814-the-friendly-or... Accidental Empires (1996) by Robert X Cringely is also pretty good: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=SAMsiz5BEB&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27652.Accidental_Empires...
- Naac 6y ago
  Would you say these are as technical as Kernighan's book?
  - sien 6y ago
    Yep. But I wouldn't say Kernighan's book was technical. I enjoyed Kernighan's book though. These books go into about as much detail. It's more technical history.
vram22 6y ago
There probably are many, you have to name your poison and search for books about it. Almost any really major technology or tech company likely has had a book or two written about it. Some examples off the top of my head: The HP Way The IBM Way The New Magicians (Microsoft) Heard of Fire in The Valley but not read it The Soul of a New Machine Hackers by Steven Levy Sure to be many books about Unix The Art of Unix Programming (more on tech, but a good amount of history) There probably are more books about (in no particular order): Dell, Sun Micro, Compaq, DEC, Novell, SCO, IBM, Wordstar, WordPerfect, Lotus (both company and tech), dBASE, Borland, Microsoft, AutoCAD, Adobe, HP, Silicon Graphics, Tandem, Ardent, Amdahl, Wang, Toshiba, Acer, Sony, Sinclair, Commodore, Atari, Acorn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Amazon, Netflix, Apple and a host of lesser-known or older companies, both in the US and elsewhere. The list above has non-US companies too. It's fun to read about the history of our field. I keep doing a bit of it now and then.

heavyavocado 6y ago

Heard great things about it and really want to read it. However, a warning to anyone thinking of getting this book on kindle: It's unreadable. It literally will not download on a kindle device. Just purchased it recently but will have to refund.

IvyMike 6y ago
You are correct--it is pretty disappointing they haven't made it available on normal kindle devices. That being said, I think you will be able to read it on the kindle player on a desktop computer. At least, that worked for me. I admit this is not ideal, but the book is fantastic and it was worth the extra effort.
agbell 6y ago
I had this same problem. I does work on the kindle app for desktop. Funny thing about the book, it was made using troff, one of the original unix utilities.