[TUHS] Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!

Dave Horsfall dave at horsfall.org
Sun Feb 4 08:59:27 AEST 2018


On Sat, 3 Feb 2018, Arthur Krewat wrote:

> I would imagine that Windows wouldn't be what it is today without UNIX. 
> Matter of fact, Windows NT (which is what Windows has been based on 
> since Windows ME went away) is really DEC's VMS underneath the covers at 
> least to a small extent.

I thought that NT has a POSIX-y kernel, which is why it was so reliable? 
Or was VMS a POSIX-like system?  I only used it for a couple of years in 
the early 80s (up to 4.0, I think), and never dug inside it; to me, it was 
just RSX-11/RSTS-11 on steroids.

> Would VMS become what it was without UNIX's influence? Would UNIX become 
> what it later was without VMS?
>
> Would UNIX exist, or even be close to what it became without DEC?

I've oft wondered that, but we have to use a new thread to avoid 
embarrassing Ken :-)

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."



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