[TUHS] Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!

[Andy Kosela]

On Sunday, February 3, 2019, Steve Nickolas <usotsuki at buric.co> wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Dave Horsfall wrote:
>
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2019, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
>>
>> Without Unix, Microsoft would not have created Microsoft "Windows".
>>>
>>
>> I'd like to see some evidence for that; without Unix, what would we be
>> running now?  I doubt whether it would've been Linux, there being no
>> inspiration for it...
>>
>> My vague (and rough) recollection is CP/M -> DOS -> Windows.
>>
>> Even it has roots in Unix.
>>>
>>
>> Only inasmuch as it has directories, users, and permissions (which any
>> semi-decent OS would have anyway)...  Admittedly I have never compromised
>> my integrity by using/programming it, so I am willing to be corrected.
>>
>> And yes, I know about POSIX compatibility, but so is Linux, and it's
>> different enough from Unix to be damned annoying.
>>
>> -- Dave
>>
>>
> Keep in mind that the MS-DOS 2 "handles" API for file access is based
> *directly* on Xenix, and replaced the MS-DOS 1 "FCB" API borrowed from CP/M.
>
>
And also don't forget that Xenix had the largest UNIX installed base
measured by the number of machines it was installed on.  People talking
about BSD and System V in the 80s, but it was Xenix that ruled on micros.
So at the time Microsoft offered both UNIX and MS-DOS.

--Andy
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