[TUHS] First Unix-like OSes not derived from AT&T code?

[Clem Cole]

a couple of small additions/corrections ....

On Tue, May 10, 2022 at 3:34 PM Richard Salz <rich.salz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Per wikipedia (FWIW), V7M was for PDP-11; Ultrix was the first VAX unix
> project and based on 4.2BSD.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrix
>
Not quite...  Indeed, V7M was a >>source<< distribution for the 11 - Fred
Cantor and Bill Shannon were the primary hackers on same - actually].
I want to say that 1980 maybe 1981. This was available to any AT&T source
licensee - using the traditional rules [Warren has it -- it actually is
easier to get running on a PiDP-11 than the basic V7 distribution -- its
supports more devices out of the box]..   The key is that V7m booted on
more systems out of the box than V7 and also it has Shannon's overlay code
in it [which would eventually make its way in 2.X BSD].

Ultrix was the first VAX release of Ultrix that Armando and Bill shepherded
using 4.1BSD, but Fred did the first Ultrix-11 also which was somewhere
between 2.X BSD and V7m *and was a binary release*. Ultrix was the formal
name of DEC's first UNIX a product. BTW: A number of the drivers from
Ultrix went back to Merrimack via Shannon to CSRG.  At the time ~82, I had
the only pure DEC 780 at UCB [which DEC had donated to the CAD group] so
Sam and I debugged the TU78 driver from Ultrix on the now burgeoning 4.1A
on the UCBCAD machine 'coke' - with remote help from Bill. I don't
remember all the differences but my system had a fully loaded I/O system
and Shannon's system back in MKO did not.   I think Sam must have rewritten
the configuration support code a few times during that process.  That said,
that driver and device support may not have been released in the BSD stream
until the 4.2BSD stuff was folded in.

Famously, Bill Munson announced Ultrix at an early 1980s USENIX,
reminding everyone that it meant Fortran, Cobol and the like would be
coming too.  Paul W and his mates in the Languages group had to do all
sorts of stuff to make that so.  I believe Paul has previously extolled us
with moving the VMS linker over to the Unix to support at least Fortran.
FYI, Sun does not yet exist (Shannon is still working for Munson in NH).

At some point, Ultrix went to the PMAX (after Armando moved to Palo Alto
and Shannon had left for Sun).   Interesting tidbit, Ultrix was used to
debug the Alpha and was the first OS that ran on it.   History has shown
the stupidity of not releasing that as a product [cost at least 4 years of
revenue but I digress].

It's about the time of the original Ultrix work is when I stopped paying
attention to the PDP-11s, so there are gaps in my knowledge.  Ultrix
definitely was released as a binary product for the 11.  My >>memory<< is
the first version for the Vax was 4.1 based with some new defined support
and languages, but that version may not have gone too far outside of DEC
and until the 4.2BSD version was the first one for revenue.   The first
Ultrix-11 was V7+some set of BSDisms.   I know Shannon's overlay code went
to UCB, but I'm not so sure when the BSD 11 changes came back to DEC.





> Armando Stettner is probably most famous for the NH license plate "Ultrix"
>
No, he had the NH UNIX plate [on his Z-Car] not Ultrix, and he later sold
it to Maddog when he moved to DEC Palo Alto.  His Plate was the model for
the famous DEC license plate [note I've had the Mass plate since '83 and I
believe I am the only person that ever had it -- it's been a number of cars
since - currently on my Model S.



> The NH state motto, which appeared on all their license plates, was "Live
> Free or Die"
>
Still does.  As does the Old Man on the Mountain
<https://streaklinks.com/BCshxfLaWkefKIBCHgqyssb9/https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FOld_Man_of_the_Mountain>
even though it's long gone.
ᐧ
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