[TUHS] The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[TUHS] The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Warren Toomey via TUHS]

On Wed Feb 23 16:33, 1994, I turned on the web service on my machine
"minnie", originally minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au, now minnie.tuhs.org (aka
www.tuhs.org). The web service has been running continuously for thirty
years, except for occasional downtimes and hardware/software upgrades.

I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
still in existence :-)

For your enjoyment, I've restored a snapshot of the web site from
around mid-1994. It is visible at https://minnie.tuhs.org/94Web/
Some hyperlinks are broken.

## Web Logs

The web logs show me testing the service locally on Feb 23 1994,
with the first international web fetches on Feb 26:

```
sparcserve.cs.adfa.oz.au [Wed Feb 23 16:33:13 1994] GET / HTTP/1.0
sparcserve.cs.adfa.oz.au [Wed Feb 23 16:33:18 1994] GET /BSD.html HTTP/1.0
sparcserve.cs.adfa.oz.au [Wed Feb 23 16:33:20 1994] GET /Images/demon1.gif HTTP/1.0
...
estcs1.estec.esa.nl [Sat Feb 26 01:48:21 1994] GET /BSD-info/BSD.html HTTP/1.0
estcs1.estec.esa.nl [Sat Feb 26 01:48:30 1994] GET /BSD-info/Images/demon1.gif HTTP/1.0
estcs1.estec.esa.nl [Sat Feb 26 01:49:46 1994] GET /BSD-info/cdrom.html HTTP/1.0
shazam.cs.iastate.edu [Sat Feb 26 06:31:20 1994] GET /BSD-info/BSD.html HTTP/1.0
shazam.cs.iastate.edu [Sat Feb 26 06:31:24 1994] GET /BSD-info/Images/demon1.gif HTTP/1.0
dem0nmac.mgh.harvard.edu [Sat Feb 26 06:32:04 1994] GET /BSD-info/BSD.html HTTP/1.0
dem0nmac.mgh.harvard.edu [Sat Feb 26 06:32:10 1994] GET /BSD-info/Images/demon1.gif HTTP/1.0
```

## Minnie to This Point

Minnie originally started life in May 1991 as an FTP server running KA9Q NOS
on an IBM XT with a 30M RLL disk, see https://minnie.tuhs.org/minannounce.txt

By February 1994 Minnie was running FreeBSD 1.0e on a 386DX25 with 500M
of disk space, 8M of RAM and a 10Base2 network connection. I'd received a copy
of the BSDisc Vol.1 No.1 in December 1993. According to the date on the file
`RELNOTES.FreeBSD` on the CD, FreeBSD 1.0e was released on Oct 28 1993.

## The Web Server

I'd gone to a summer conference in Canberra in mid-February 1994 (see
pg. 29 of https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Documentation/AUUGN/AUUGN-V15.1.pdf
and https://minnie.tuhs.org/94Web/Canberra-AUUG/cauugs94.html, 10am)
and I'd seen the Mosaic web browser in action. With FreeBSD running on
minnie, it seemed like a good idea to set up a web server on her.

NCSA HTTPd server v1.1 had been released at the end of Jan 1994, see
http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1994q1/0282.html
It was the obvious choice to be the web server on minnie.

## Minnie from Then to Now

You can read more about minnie's history and her hardware/software
evolution here: https://minnie.tuhs.org/minnie.html

I obtained the "tuhs.org" domain in May 2000 and switched minnie's
domain name from "minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au" to "minnie.tuhs.org".

Cheers!
	Warren

P.S. I couldn't wait until Friday to post this :-)

[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Dave Horsfall]

Well done. sir!

-- Dave

[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Rich Salz]

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>
> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
> still in existence :-)
>

Congrats. In a ship of Theseus sense.:)

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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Warner Losh]

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On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Rich Salz <rich.salz@gmail.com> wrote:

> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
>> still in existence :-)
>>
>
> Congrats. In a ship of Theseus sense.:)
>

We all sail in the Unix ship of Theseus... Every system today had code from
Unix directly, or from another ship that was built of the builts of one
that was split between a couple of groups. Yes, even Linux: lots of
networking userland came from BSD, for example, and while lots have been
rewritten, that's kinda the point of the ship of Theseus... :)

Warner

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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Clem Cole]

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On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 4:02 PM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Rich Salz <rich.salz@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
>>> still in existence :-)
>>>
>>
>> Congrats. In a ship of Theseus sense.:)
>>
>
> *We all sail in the Unix ship of Theseus..*. Every system today had code
> from Unix directly, or from another ship that was built of the builts of
> one that was split between a couple of groups. Yes, even Linux: lots of
> networking userland came from BSD, for example, and while lots have been
> rewritten, that's kinda the point of the ship of Theseus... :)
>
+1
My observation is that Linux is just the current (and most
successful) implementation of ideas that Doug, Ken, Rudd, Dennis, *et al.*
started and others have contributed to over the years.  And like the
thought experiment described, there is no reason why the ship can not be
changed.  It still sails the same way to the same places.


ᐧ

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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[James Johnston]

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 Well done. Has the hardware evolved?  I presume so, but I do remember one
legacy machine from the early 1980's at BTL (icarus, an 11/23), that when
it shut down forever in 1996, was a microvax, with its bus connected to a
standard PDP11 bus, that connected to a Q-bus, and the original discs were
still on line.  It's uptime was never more than 350+ days, though, because
of once a year UPS testing.  In its last incarnation, it did nothing but
mail routing, and that barely.  I don't think anything changed on it in the
last 10 years, not even the system.

On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:15 PM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 4:02 PM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Rich Salz <rich.salz@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
>>>> still in existence :-)
>>>>
>>>
>>> Congrats. In a ship of Theseus sense.:)
>>>
>>
>> *We all sail in the Unix ship of Theseus..*. Every system today had code
>> from Unix directly, or from another ship that was built of the builts of
>> one that was split between a couple of groups. Yes, even Linux: lots of
>> networking userland came from BSD, for example, and while lots have been
>> rewritten, that's kinda the point of the ship of Theseus... :)
>>
> +1
> My observation is that Linux is just the current (and most
> successful) implementation of ideas that Doug, Ken, Rudd, Dennis, *et al.*
> started and others have contributed to over the years.  And like the
> thought experiment described, there is no reason why the ship can not be
> changed.  It still sails the same way to the same places.
>
>
> ᐧ
>


-- 
James D. (jj) Johnston

Chief Scientist, Immersion Networks

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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Douglas McIlroy]

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Warren,

Well done indeed! Though the first website, info.cern.ch, is still running,
it's not under the loving care of its originator.

Doug

On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 4:45 PM James Johnston <audioskeptic@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Well done. Has the hardware evolved?  I presume so, but I do remember one
> legacy machine from the early 1980's at BTL (icarus, an 11/23), that when
> it shut down forever in 1996, was a microvax, with its bus connected to a
> standard PDP11 bus, that connected to a Q-bus, and the original discs were
> still on line.  It's uptime was never more than 350+ days, though, because
> of once a year UPS testing.  In its last incarnation, it did nothing but
> mail routing, and that barely.  I don't think anything changed on it in the
> last 10 years, not even the system.
>
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:15 PM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 4:02 PM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Rich Salz <rich.salz@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
>>>>> still in existence :-)
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Congrats. In a ship of Theseus sense.:)
>>>>
>>>
>>> *We all sail in the Unix ship of Theseus..*. Every system today had
>>> code from Unix directly, or from another ship that was built of the builts
>>> of one that was split between a couple of groups. Yes, even Linux: lots of
>>> networking userland came from BSD, for example, and while lots have been
>>> rewritten, that's kinda the point of the ship of Theseus... :)
>>>
>> +1
>> My observation is that Linux is just the current (and most
>> successful) implementation of ideas that Doug, Ken, Rudd, Dennis, *et
>> al.* started and others have contributed to over the years.  And like
>> the thought experiment described, there is no reason why the ship can not
>> be changed.  It still sails the same way to the same places.
>>
>>
>> ᐧ
>>
>
>
> --
> James D. (jj) Johnston
>
> Chief Scientist, Immersion Networks
>

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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[Charles H. Sauer]

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As well known, HTTP has marched forward and left 0.9 behind -- neither http://tuhs.org/ nor http://info.cern.ch/, both servers apparently running Apache 2.4 versions, can be accessed by timbl’s WorldWideWeb 0.15 app on NEXTSTEP. I just verified on the machine described in https://notes.technologists.com/notes/2019/07/01/koko-reviving-timbls-worldwideweb-browser/ that the original app accessing those URIs results in HTTP 400, as expected, but accessing an Apache 2.0.47 sever from the original app responds with HTTP 200 and the appropriate HTML. Charlie

> On Feb 19, 2024, at 8:10 PM, Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> 
> Warren,
> 
> Well done indeed! Though the first website, info.cern.ch <http://info.cern.ch/>, is still running, it's not under the loving care of its originator.
> 
> Doug

--
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Facebook/Google/LinkedIn/Twitter: CharlesHSauer


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[TUHS] Re: The Web Service on Minnie is 30 Years Old Today

[arnold]

Warren Toomey via TUHS <tuhs@tuhs.org> wrote:

> On Wed Feb 23 16:33, 1994, I turned on the web service on my machine
> "minnie", originally minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au, now minnie.tuhs.org (aka
> www.tuhs.org). The web service has been running continuously for thirty
> years, except for occasional downtimes and hardware/software upgrades.
>
> I think this makes minnie one of the longest running web services
> still in existence :-)

Warren,

Thank you again for both web serviced and TUHS in general. It's
been an invaluable resource for literally decades.

Arnold