3 ms·

Is 'ancient UNIX' a term of art, or should I be offended?

LukeShu 1y ago
While exact definitions vary, it's a term of art for Research Unix ≤ V7, perhaps plus or minus a version, perhaps including contemporary derivatives.
cryptonector 1y ago
Relatively speaking, any operating system from the 70s is "ancient".
- pjmlp 1y ago
  What about from the 60s? Archaic? https://www.unisys.com/product-info-sheet/ecs/clearpath-master-control-program-mcp https://www.unisys.com/product-info-sheet/ecs/clearpath-mast...
  - anthk 1y ago
    Anything with non keyboard input = prehistoric.
  - aap_ 1y ago
    Is it at all possible to get a peak into that world as a curious person?
    - anthk 1y ago
      http://ibm1130.org/emu/ http://ibm1130.org/emu/ https://opensimh.org/simdocs/ibm1130_doc.html https://opensimh.org/simdocs/ibm1130_doc.html
    - pjmlp 1y ago
      Unisys not, but the one predating UNIX, https://multicians.org/simulator.html https://multicians.org/simulator.html
      - aap_ 1y ago
        With Multics i'm familiar enough, i meant unisys specifically.
        pjmlp 1y ago
        Not for free, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/mcp-clearpath-servers/mcp-management-personnel-training-tract/ https://www.unisys.com/client-education/mcp-clearpath-server... However you can get into the documentation for free, NEWP manual, the systems language, https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-21.0/86002003-409.pdf https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-22.0/86002003-410/86002003-410/index.html https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... Overall documentation, https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-22.0/ https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... The original system back in 1960's, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
shaky-carrousel 1y ago
I'm a Stargate fan, and I call everything created before 1980 Ancient Technology. I like how it sounds.
- preisschild 1y ago
  The Ancients had cool tech. Probably all running on Unix :P
throwawaysoxjje 1y ago
I’d call basically anything before the mid 90s ancient, even though I was there and using it at the time, just because of how much of the way we use computers now has changed so drastically.
- anthk 1y ago
  Amiga WB, Macs, Atari GEM, RiscOS... not that different.
  - throwawaysoxjje 11mo ago
    How many of the operating systems that you listed remain as ways we use computers? Even Macs were an entirely different codebase that didn’t even have memory protection or preemptive multitasking, which very much changed how you used it.
fl7305 1y ago
Some of us are ancient enough to have been born before the last person walked on the moon.
- lproven 1y ago
  Some of us are working day jobs in tech and remember the first guy.
jonjacky 1y ago
Severo Ornstein called his memoir of the 1950s - 1970s Computing in the Middle Ages. Ornstein worked on SAGE, TX-2, LINC, and the Arpanet IMP among other things, before moving on to Xerox PARC. https://worrydream.com/refs/Ornstein_2002_-_Computing_in_the_Middle_Ages.pdf https://worrydream.com/refs/Ornstein_2002_-_Computing_in_the...
- CamperBob2 11mo ago
  Great read, but he undersells the weight of von Neumann's EDVAC report. If you haven't read that (which I imagine you have), it's crazy how prescient some of the lesser-known ideas are. He seemed to assume that we'd end up with some kind of neural architecture, and it's easy to imagine him being surprised that it took us this long to get serious about the idea. Apropos of that, I couldn't resist telling Gemini 3 to run with your story prompt from the earlier thread: https://gemini.google.com/share/ac122aba6f7f https://gemini.google.com/share/ac122aba6f7f. Thanks for the inspiration, apologies for following it. :-P (Also thanks for posting the material you wrote back in the 1980s on the SCP initiative. I had heard of it as an SDI connection or component, but that was all. Reading through it now.)
  - jonjacky 11mo ago
    Thanks! -- Jon

While exact definitions vary, it's a term of art for Research Unix ≤ V7, perhaps plus or minus a version, perhaps including contemporary derivatives.

cryptonector 1y ago

Relatively speaking, any operating system from the 70s is "ancient".

pjmlp 1y ago
What about from the 60s? Archaic? https://www.unisys.com/product-info-sheet/ecs/clearpath-master-control-program-mcp https://www.unisys.com/product-info-sheet/ecs/clearpath-mast...
- anthk 1y ago
  Anything with non keyboard input = prehistoric.
- aap_ 1y ago
  Is it at all possible to get a peak into that world as a curious person?
  - anthk 1y ago
    http://ibm1130.org/emu/ http://ibm1130.org/emu/ https://opensimh.org/simdocs/ibm1130_doc.html https://opensimh.org/simdocs/ibm1130_doc.html
  - pjmlp 1y ago
    Unisys not, but the one predating UNIX, https://multicians.org/simulator.html https://multicians.org/simulator.html
    - aap_ 1y ago
      With Multics i'm familiar enough, i meant unisys specifically.
      - pjmlp 1y ago
        Not for free, https://www.unisys.com/client-education/mcp-clearpath-servers/mcp-management-personnel-training-tract/ https://www.unisys.com/client-education/mcp-clearpath-server... However you can get into the documentation for free, NEWP manual, the systems language, https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-21.0/86002003-409.pdf https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-22.0/86002003-410/86002003-410/index.html https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... Overall documentation, https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP-22.0/ https://public.support.unisys.com/aseries/docs/ClearPath-MCP... The original system back in 1960's, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burroughs_Large_Systems

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

shaky-carrousel 1y ago

I'm a Stargate fan, and I call everything created before 1980 Ancient Technology. I like how it sounds.

preisschild 1y ago
The Ancients had cool tech. Probably all running on Unix :P

throwawaysoxjje 1y ago

I’d call basically anything before the mid 90s ancient, even though I was there and using it at the time, just because of how much of the way we use computers now has changed so drastically.

anthk 1y ago
Amiga WB, Macs, Atari GEM, RiscOS... not that different.
- throwawaysoxjje 11mo ago
  How many of the operating systems that you listed remain as ways we use computers? Even Macs were an entirely different codebase that didn’t even have memory protection or preemptive multitasking, which very much changed how you used it.

fl7305 1y ago

Some of us are ancient enough to have been born before the last person walked on the moon.

lproven 1y ago
Some of us are working day jobs in tech and remember the first guy.

jonjacky 1y ago

Severo Ornstein called his memoir of the 1950s - 1970s Computing in the Middle Ages. Ornstein worked on SAGE, TX-2, LINC, and the Arpanet IMP among other things, before moving on to Xerox PARC. https://worrydream.com/refs/Ornstein_2002_-_Computing_in_the_Middle_Ages.pdf https://worrydream.com/refs/Ornstein_2002_-_Computing_in_the...

CamperBob2 11mo ago
Great read, but he undersells the weight of von Neumann's EDVAC report. If you haven't read that (which I imagine you have), it's crazy how prescient some of the lesser-known ideas are. He seemed to assume that we'd end up with some kind of neural architecture, and it's easy to imagine him being surprised that it took us this long to get serious about the idea. Apropos of that, I couldn't resist telling Gemini 3 to run with your story prompt from the earlier thread: https://gemini.google.com/share/ac122aba6f7f https://gemini.google.com/share/ac122aba6f7f. Thanks for the inspiration, apologies for following it. :-P (Also thanks for posting the material you wrote back in the 1980s on the SCP initiative. I had heard of it as an SDI connection or component, but that was all. Reading through it now.)
- jonjacky 11mo ago
  Thanks! -- Jon