[TUHS] a book (was Re: PWB vs Unix/TS)

[reed at reedmedia.net]

There needs to be a book with stuff like this. There is no Unix history 
book that I have ever seen with the depth of information in threads like 
this and others on TUHS.  It would be a huge project and hard to tell if 
there would me more than just recognition and intrinsic rewards for the 
effort -- but maybe that is enough.

(As an example, I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours 
researching a small subset: Berkeley Unix history. Attempted to contact 
hundreds of historical participants. Interviewed near 100 people; most 
by email, but some in person or by phone -- even postal mail! Building a 
massive collection of historical data. Read over 30 physical books 
covering very small parts of the story. Watched many videos (and notes). 
Getting documents scanned and sent to me. It is a very detailed effort 
-- such as a single long chapter on the Virtual Vax/UNIX / London/Reiser 
/ Babaoglu story with 168 citations or the single chapters on the 
official unofficial patchkits, lawsuit, etc. -- and there is nothing in 
this field to compare it too. I have over 243 bibtex entries already and 
215 citations left to add to my .bib file. During that time, I have 
published six other books, some written from scratch. Some have 
suggested I use Kickstarter or similar as a financial incentive to 
finish it off.)

Since the Unix story is so huge, a first volume could be up through 
System III, for example, but maybe that is too much.

Anyone know of anyone writing a thorough Unix history book?

Does it make sense to use a kickstarter?

I may bring up in a different thread, but I am presenting about Unix 
history at Dallas Ft. Worth UNIX Users Group soon. They are planning to 
have two meetings (different months) dedicated to the history (50th 
anniversary).

Jeremy C. Reed

p.s. Sorry to mention this, but time is running out:

$ grep -i decease /home/reed/book/bsd-history/PEOPLE | wc -l 
      17

pps. My other chapters:

beginning.tex:\chapter{In the beginning ...}

2bsd.tex:\chapter{Second Berkeley Software Tape}

3bsd.tex:\chapter{Welcome to Virtual Vax/UNIX}

2bsd-part2.tex:\chapter{2BSD becomes an operating system}

4bsd.tex:\chapter{4BSD}

43bsd.tex:\chapter{4.3BSD -- The Internet Server}

2bsd-part3.tex:\chapter{The 16-bit 2BSD continues}

43bsd-part2.tex:\chapter{To open source BSD}

commercial.tex:\chapter{Commercial Unixes using BSD}

44bsd.tex:\chapter{4.4BSD}

bsdi.tex:\chapter{BSDI}

386bsd.tex:\chapter{386BSD Part 1}

lawsuit.tex:\chapter{Lawsuit}

patchkit.tex:\chapter{The official unofficial patchkits}

netbsd.tex:\chapter{NetBSD}

freebsd.tex:\chapter{FreeBSD}

386bsd-part3.tex:\chapter{386BSD Part 2}

bsdi-part2.tex:\chapter{BSDI part 2}

openbsd.tex:\chapter{OpenBSD}

netbsd-part2.tex:\chapter{NetBSD -- Part 2}

dragonfly.tex:\chapter{DragonFly BSD}

3bsd-license.tex:\chapter{3BSD Software Agreement (1979)}

4bsd-license.tex:\chapter{4BSD Software Agreement (1980)}



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