[TUHS] Interesting commentary on Unix from Multicians.

[Dan Cross]

I came across this talk that, apparently, was meant to be part of a
documentary about timesharing systems at MIT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZPYBDA6XVo

This "episode" features McCarthy, Corbato, Fano, Fredkin, and Philip Morse
talking about Multics.

Starting at ~12:15m they talk about the triumvirate of MIT, GE and Bell
Labs and some of the challenges with distributed work. Around the 14 minute
mark, they talk about Bell Labs exiting the project, and touch briefly on
the development of Unix. Interesting quotes include Fano talking about
different objectives from the different organizations, Corby saying, "they
[Bell Labs] dropped out three-quarters of the way through the race"
(referring to Multics), Fano asserting that BTL left after the _research_
part of the project was essentially completed, and Corbato talking about
the influence of Multics on Unix design (Corby refers to Multics as Ken and
Dennis's "prototype" and calls Unix a "second generation Multics"). This
was all shot in the early 1980s.

The rest is interesting, but mostly unrelated to Unix.

        - Dan C.


(PS: As an aside, Fano lighting up a cigarette at about 19:20 was
particularly striking: my, how times have changed.)
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