From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,PLING_QUERY,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id bc134cde for ; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:55:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 29C6A9BCDA; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 23:55:43 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF3679B8A5; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 23:55:17 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B22BE9B8A5; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 23:55:14 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mercury.lcs.mit.edu (mercury.lcs.mit.edu [18.26.0.122]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 50ECD9B885 for ; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 23:55:14 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11178) id 57C4818C091; Sat, 12 Oct 2019 09:55:13 -0400 (EDT) To: tuhs@tuhs.org Message-Id: <20191012135513.57C4818C091@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 09:55:13 -0400 (EDT) From: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa) Subject: Re: [TUHS] What was your "Aha, Unix!" moment? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" > From: Warren Toomey > What was your "ahah" moment when you first saw that Unix was special, > especially compared to the systems you'd previously used? Sometime in my undergrad sophmore year, IIRC. A friend had a undergrad research thing with DSSR, who I think at that point had the first UNIX at MIT. He showed me the system, and wrote a tiny command in C, compiled it, and executed the binary from the shell. No big deal, right? Well, at that point ('75 or so), the only OS's I had used were RSTS-11, a batch system running on an Interdata (programs were submitted on card decks), the DELPHI system (done by the people in DSSR), and a few similar things. I had never used a system where an ordinary user could 'add' a command to the command interpreter, and was blown away. (At that point in time, not many OS's could do that.) Unix was in a whole different world compared to contemporaneous PDP-11 OS's. It felt like a 'mainframe' OS (background jobs, etc), but on a mini. Noel