[9fans] from slashdot

[andrey mirtchovski <mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>]

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/16/2225215


Peter Salus over at UnixReview.com is reporting that AT&T Department 1127, responsible for creating and maintaining Unix, has been officially disbanded. The article provides an interesting "where are they now?" list of the original authors of Unix.


and the article itself:

http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=9846/ur0508l/ur0508l.html

text:

Dept.  1127: going, Going, GONE!  by Peter H. Salus

In 1969, UNIX was created at Bell Labs.

For decades, the source of the AT&T dialect of UNIX came from the
researches of workers in department 1127.

When the "Baby Bells" split from "Ma Bell," department 1127 survived.
When AT&T and Lucent split, 1127 survived.

But the new reorg at Bell Labs finally breaks up what's left of 1127
entirely.  Theory people will go to one place, systems people to
another, I'm told.  I'm not sure what happens to those who fall in
neither camp.  There was no malice, so far as I can tell — just an
administrative reorg forced by recent cutbacks and layoffs and
departures that left the whole research area with too many managers
and too few researchers.

Ken Thompson retired to California.  Brian Kernighan is a Professor at
Princeton.  Doug McIlroy is a Professor at Dartmouth.  Rob Pike and
Dave Presotto and Sean Dorward are at Google.  Tom Duff is at Pixar.
Phil Winterbottom is CTO at Entrisphere.  Gerard Holzmann is at
NASA/JPL Lab for Reliable Software.  Bob Flandrena is at Morgan
Stanley.

To the best of my knowledge, Dennis Ritchie and Howard Trickey remain,
enisled.  A former employee at 1127 remarked:

    "My take is that 1127 probably reached Schiavo status when Rob,
    Presotto, et al.  fled west to Google.  "But it's still sad to see
    the final demise, both of a particular institution and as a
    further nail in the coffin of the sort of research environment
    Bell Labs once represented."

That may be the worst effect.  DEC Labs are gone.  XEROX PARC
transmogrified into "Palo Alto Research Center Inc." on 4 January
2002.  It's a waning of research potential.

Ave atque vale, guys.  "And thanks for all the fish."