Unix at 50

[Mugwump]

Bless Bell Labs —
Unix at 50: How the OS that powered smartphones started from failure
Today, Unix powers iOS and Android—its legend begins with a gator and a trio of researchers.

Richard Jensen - 8/29/2019, 7:00 AM



Maybe its pervasiveness has long obscured its origins. But Unix, the operating system that in one derivative or another powers nearly all smartphones sold worldwide, was born 50 years ago from the failure of an ambitious project that involved titans like Bell Labs, GE, and MIT. Largely the brainchild of a few programmers at Bell Labs, the unlikely story of Unix begins with a meeting on the top floor of an otherwise unremarkable annex at the sprawling Bell Labs complex in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

It was a bright, cold Monday, the last day of March 1969, and the computer sciences department was hosting distinguished guests: Bill Baker, a Bell Labs vice president, and Ed David, the director of research. Baker was about to pull the plug on Multics (a condensed form of MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service), a software project that the computer sciences department had been working on for four years. Multics was two years overdue, way over budget, and functional only in the loosest possible understanding of the term.

-more-
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08/unix-at-50-it-starts-with-a-mainframe-a-gator-and-three-dedicated-researchers/

[BallAquatics]

Unix may be 50, but it's Linux that smart phones, routers, tables, etc use.  The astronomical price to purchase a Unix operating license was what drove Linus Torvaldsto create Linux.....

Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system.[20] Linux is the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers, and the only OS used on TOP500 supercomputers (since November 2017, having gradually eliminated all competitors).[21][22][23] It is used by around 2.3 percent of desktop computers.[24][25] The Chromebook, which runs the Linux kernel-based Chrome OS, dominates the US K–12 education market and represents nearly 20 percent of sub-$300 notebook sales in the US.[26]

Linux also runs on embedded systems, i.e. devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system. This includes routers, automation controls, televisions,[27][28] digital video recorders, video game consoles, and smartwatches.[29] Many smartphones and tablet computers run Android and other Linux derivatives.[30] Because of the dominance of Android on smartphones, Linux has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems.[31]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

Linus Benedict Torvalds; born December 28, 1969) is a Finnish-American[2][6] software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the principal developer of the Linux kernel, which is the kernel for Linux operating systems (distributions) and other operating systems such as Android and Chrome OS. He also created the distributed version control system Git and the scuba dive logging and planning software Subsurface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

Dennis