The first non-printing terminal I remember seeing at Bell Labs was the Tektronix 4014. The image (green phosphors) was “painted” on the screen and would remain until an erase function was executed. (I seem to remember that this action made a soft audible “pop” sound).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_4010

---
Robert Diamond
rob@robdiamond.com


On Nov 22, 2017, at 5:43 AM, Nigel Williams <nw@retrocomputingtasmania.com> wrote:

I stumbled into a reddit post on Unix with the claim about early Unices only being accessed via printing terminals, and it suggested a question to me as to the first “glass teletype” or CRT terminal to be used with Unix.

Given the DEC-centric nature of early Unix I would guess perhaps a VT05 or VT52 but I’m keen to know if anyone from those early years recollects what happened and when regarding Unix terminal access alternatives aside from the venerable 33KSR or 33ASR.