Very kind words from Brantley and Clem. It's an interesting notion to regard Unix as gestational until it came out in public talks (1973) and was exported to universities. Maybe I could claim to have laid the groundwork for Unix by causing Multics to be written in PL/I, a language big and sprawling, like the project itself. That unintentionally provided plenty of stimulus for thinking small. Ken was absolutely on his own when he began to fiddle with building a tiny operating system on the GE 645. I heard about it only after the fact. After Multics, I ran interference to keep our once-burned higher management from frowning too much on further operating-system research. I was aware that Ken, Dennis and Rudd were discussing the subject down the hall from my office, but I did not participate in the discussions. At the same time, I was noodling over what would later be called shell pipelines; but I did not come up with the vivid term "pipe"  or a halfway workable syntax for another three years. While these actions may have contributed to a welcoming environment for Unix, they in no way "started" it. Doug On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 10:03 AM Brantley Coile <brantley(a)coraid.com> wrote: It all depends on how you define "started." Your contributions to it was done while it was still in the maternity ward of the hospital in which it was birthed. I would argue, at length if need be, but I suspect it's not needed, that you indeed "started to develop it." Did only Ken started it. Who was in the room when Ken outlined the file system? You're finger prints are all over everything from very, very early. From a quarter the way into the 21st century, you certainly appear to have started to develop it. Just my humble opinion. my disclaimer is that I've always held your contributions in very high regard. Brantley <douglas.mcilroy(a)dartmouth.edu> wrote: one of those who "start[ed] to develop it".