[TUHS] Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!

Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com
Mon Feb 4 10:32:24 AEST 2019


On Mon, Feb 04, 2019 at 09:07:52AM +1100, 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.

Yep.

> >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.

It's what you are used to.  I haven't tried it but apparently Microsoft
has implemented the Linux syscall layer that you can just drop a distro
on top of windows and the binaries work.


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