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

[Warner Losh]

On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 7:31 PM <reed at reedmedia.net> wrote:

> 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.
>

I think it would be cool, but we need better data visualization. There's a
lot of rich history here that people like me try to boil down to a few
ovals and arrows, but the real answer is much more complicated. We need the
equivalent to Mindard's analysis of Napoleon's march to Moscow and back to
show how things like awk entered, and where, and different 'sub editions'
and different lines of code maintained outside the overly simple narrative
of V1 -> V2 ... -> V7 -> 32V -> chaos. :)


> (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?
>

I'd be keen to write up what I've found.


> 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).
>

If they are large enough, I could be persuaded to reprise my EuroBSDcon
talk at them, assuming people are happy with how it turns out....

Warner


> 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)}
>
>
>
> -----------------------
>
> echo Ohl zl obbx uggc://errqzrqvn.arg/obbxf/csfrafr/ | \
>  tr "Onoqrsuvxzabcefghl" "Babdefhikmnoprstuy"
>
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