From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 15044 invoked from network); 7 Sep 2022 05:16:07 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 7 Sep 2022 05:16:07 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F7AC41709; Wed, 7 Sep 2022 15:15:59 +1000 (AEST) Received: from pasta.tip.net.au (pasta.tip.net.au [203.10.76.2]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3ECEB41708 for ; Wed, 7 Sep 2022 15:15:55 +1000 (AEST) Received: from [192.168.1.2] (unknown [203.7.122.114]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mailhost.tip.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4MMr7Y2QSJz8srB; Wed, 7 Sep 2022 15:15:52 +1000 (AEST) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 12.4 \(3445.104.21\)) From: steve jenkin In-Reply-To: Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2022 15:15:45 +1000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <58D7FE83-15EF-40E8-9DEB-4F6B5E45134E@canb.auug.org.au> References: <453CCF20-3A01-4655-A956-149EDC08FA36@canb.auug.org.au> To: TUHS X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3445.104.21) Message-ID-Hash: FB5WV7JQSGIVRD6SSGMYAXE7A6W7BQ7L X-Message-ID-Hash: FB5WV7JQSGIVRD6SSGMYAXE7A6W7BQ7L X-MailFrom: sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: Marc Donner X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Has this been discussed on-list? How Unix changed Software. List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: > On 7 Sep 2022, at 02:09, Marc Donner wrote: >=20 > Having spent many formative years at IBM Research throwing = (metaphorical) bombs at mainframe systems and infiltrating the place = with BSD, I have thought about this question on and off. >=20 > I would like to augment your comments with a couple of extra = observations: >=20 > UNIX was built for a particular set of users - document writers and = programmers >=20 > Before UNIX the systems were industrial in design and scope. Sort of = like MVS was a locomotive - designed to be used for hauling heavy = freight (acres of data entry clerks answering 800 numbers and entering = transactions). UNIX was more like cars and trucks - designed for use by = knowledge workers. >=20 > When I was a grad student I hung out with some remarkable programmers. = We all observed that learning to program was impossible without a body = of code to read, study, and learn from. The best places to learn = programming in the 70s and 80s were places like MIT, Berkeley, Bell = Labs, and IBM Research ... places with an established culture of sharing = code internally and large repositories of code to read. >=20 > By the mid-1980s the Microsoft folks established the notion that = software was economically valuable. People stopped giving away source = code (IBM's change in strategy was called OCO - "Object Code Only") and = it totally shocked the software developer community by destroying the = jobs for programmers at user sites. Combine that with the mid-1980s = recession and the first layoffs that programmers had ever seen and we = saw the first horrified realization that the social contract between = programmers and employers did not actually exist. >=20 > We, the programmer community, woke up and committed ourselves as much = as ever we could to non-proprietary languages and tools, putting our = shoulders to the OSS movement and hence to UNIX and the layer of tools = built on top of it. >=20 > Of course it helped to have some brilliant engineers like Ken, Dennis, = Doug, Rob, Michael, Stu (and and and) and brilliant writers like Brian = so that the thing (UNIX) had intellectual integrity and scope. >=20 > It took UNIX twenty to thirty years, but the economic logic of our = approach put an end to efforts to totally dominate the tech world. > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > nygeek.net > mindthegapdialogs.com/home Marc, Good observations. Thank you. I=E2=80=99ve never heard anyone mention that =E2=80=9Creading large = codebases=E2=80=9D was the best way to learn programming. Absolutely my = experience as well. If Professional Programmers aren=E2=80=99t doing =E2=80=9CProgramming in = the Large=E2=80=9D to provide critical services for others, then what = work are they doing? In its first 10 years (1974-84), the future of Unix was uncertain. The = formation of SUN in 1982 and other Unix-only vendors made Unix a = commercial alternative, complete with support and a help number. At UNSW, there was a significant political battle over Unix. The manager = of CSU (central Computing Services Unit) resigned over Unix. His 35 = staff later supported Unix across the Uni.=20 If he=E2=80=99d won the battle, it=E2=80=99s very likely all Unix at = UNSW would=E2=80=99ve been expunged, stopping the networking work with = Sydney University, shutting down the Unix kernel course & dramatically = slowing the spread of Unix in Australia. Robert Elz at Melbourne Uni was later an important contributor to IP = protocols and DNS. In the 1984 BSTJ issue on Unix, there=E2=80=99s no mention of SUN (1982) = & SUNOS, but they do note =E2=80=9C100,000 licenses=E2=80=9D had been = shipped, up from the 300 internal & ~600 total licenses mentioned in the = 1978 BSTJ. While still not =E2=80=9Ccannot fail=E2=80=9D status, Unix=E2=80=99s = future was becoming more certain. Today, there are 2-4 billion active smartphone and tablets - almost all = of which are Unix variants - Android and iOS. [ I=E2=80=99m sure other = =E2=80=98platforms=E2=80=99 exist, but haven=E2=80=99t followed the = market closely ] There=E2=80=99s an estimated 200M-250M =E2=80=9CPersonal Computers=E2=80=9D= in active use - 10% of all active devices. Even if all run Microsoft = and not Chromebooks, MS-Windows is now a minor player. I=E2=80=99ve no idea how big the fleet of servers powering =E2=80=9CThe = Cloud=E2=80=9D in Datacentres is, but inferring from power consumption, = it=E2=80=99s measured in millions.=20 Only MS-Azure provide Windows instances and then it runs on top of a = hypervisor, not bare metal. Is MS Hyper-V derived from a Unix variant? = If not, is certainly influenced by VMware & Xen which were. To a first approximation, 90%+ of =E2=80=98computers' now run a Unix = variant. [ disregarding the larger fleet of embedded devices, especially = in cars ] As you say, UNIX & its variants broke the monopoly / lock-in of software = by hardware vendors. The timing of Unix and it displacing hardware enforced =E2=80=9CSoftware = Silos" wasn=E2=80=99t accidental. [ A notable beneficiary of breaking = Silos is Oracle - their early promise was database =E2=80=9Cportability=E2= =80=9D. ] It falls directly out of =E2=80=9CMoore=E2=80=99s Law=E2=80=9D and = =E2=80=9CBell's Law of Computer Classes=E2=80=9D. The PDP-11 =E2=80=98regressed=E2=80=99 to 16-bits compared to the IBM = 360=E2=80=99s 32-bits: Bell=E2=80=99s Law in action - a new, much cheaper, lower = performance =E2=80=9Cclass=E2=80=9D appearing each decade. In 1977, UNSW acquired a PDP-11/70 for teaching that was 1/10th the = price of the IBM 360/50 that=E2=80=99d been purchased in 1966. [11/70 = was in service in April 1978 - hardware delays] This 11/70 provided at least the same raw performance as the 360/50, but = had ~50 2400baud terminals attached, not cards + printer. It was much more effective for learning/ teaching and provided much = higher =E2=80=9Cuseful throughput=E2=80=9D than the IBM batch system. = Certainly with VDU=E2=80=99s, much less paper was wasted :) DEC and others first leveraged the cheaper, faster silicon transistors = to build bipolar discrete-part machines: e.g. the PDP-7 co-opted for =E2=80=9CSpace Travel=E2=80=9D by = Ken in 1969. DTL became TTL, digital IC=E2=80=99s grew larger, cheaper, faster - with = =E2=80=9CMini computer=E2=80=9D manufacturers rolling out new models at = ever better price-points, more rapidly than =E2=80=99traditional=E2=80=99 = mainframe vendors. Minicomputers adopted =E2=80=9Cchipsets=E2=80=9D to implement the CPU, = leading in a few years to single-chip =E2=80=9CMicroprocessors=E2=80=9D, = often with co-processors for expensive operations, like floating point. The invention of RISC led to a whole new class of mini-computers with = single-chip CPU's and a new class of system: the Graphical Workstation [ SUN & SGI ] - not quite Bell=E2=80=99s= lowest performance class, one with significant new non-CPU = capabilities. Without UNIX, there couldn=E2=80=99t have been a RISC revolution, = because there=E2=80=99d have been no quality software for vendors to = pick up: kernel, tools, Graphical UI and 3rd party Software on these = platforms. The =E2=80=9CDot Boom=E2=80=9D that ended in 2000 was only possible = because of high-performance UNIX servers for web, storage & database. e-Bay started with Oracle on SUN servers. A solid, dependable system = design. Google didn=E2=80=99t invent Internet Search, but they did come up with = the Internet-scale Data Centre, creating highly available systems using = low-cost, =E2=80=9Cless=E2=80=9D reliabile commodity hardware. Is this a new Bell=E2=80=99s Law Class? it=E2=80=99s more a system architecture and operational = arrangement, implemented almost alone in software. Amazon leveraged their expertise and design of Internet-scale = DataCentres into a massive =E2=80=9CCloud=E2=80=9D business - not = bundled into its own products, but =E2=80=98rentable=E2=80=99 by = customers by the hour. Netflix, when it changed from mailing DVD=E2=80=99s to streaming, based = its business on renting Amazon servers, storage & bandwidth. We now have cheaper again computing services available, with zero = Capital outlay and scalable to unprecedented sizes. It follows Bells=E2=80=99 Law, while extending it. In 2007 when Apple redefined the Smartphone - using ARM (Acorn RISC = Machine) and a variant of Unix - they created a new class of computing = device. The device was designed to =E2=80=9CJust Work=E2=80=9D - near zero = admin, self-configuring and a highly reliable O/S, UI & Apps. Critically, Apple never tried to maximise the =E2=80=9Cutilisation=E2=80=9D= of the CPU & its resources - they put in fast CPU=E2=80=99s & = aggressively managed power consumption to extend battery life. The Mainframe era economic model was inverted with the desktop computer = - minimise wasted User time, not Computer time. The Smartphone took this =E2=80=9Cpeople first=E2=80=9D approach to a = new level. For me, Apple=E2=80=99s most important invention - on top of =E2=80=9CJust= Works=E2=80=9D platform - was the App Store. It builds on =E2=80=9CThe Cloud=E2=80=9D and Internet services, = providing an almost direct Software Vendor to Client channel, using a = secure & verified distribution system with embedded payments. Modern smartphone/ tablet system design, based around =E2=80=9CSandboxes=E2= =80=9D and a stringent control layer, seems to contain =E2=80=9Cmalevolent= =E2=80=9D Apps well enough (no security is perfect, but =E2=80=9CGood = Enough=E2=80=9D seems attainable). Without the App Store and Sandboxed Apps, we couldn=E2=80=99t have 2B-4B = smartphones. We know from the MS-Windows PC & Server ecosystem [ and PHP/ Wordpress ] = that "Bad Actors=E2=80=9D will organise and actively exploit system = vulnerabilities, making large fleets of exploitable devices unusable = either because resources are co-opted and the device is unresponsive, or = it=E2=80=99s compromised and can=E2=80=99t be trusted. Ironically, Moore=E2=80=99s Law couldn=E2=80=99t have proceeded as long = and as quickly as it has since 1965 without the availability of Software = to turn raw Silicon + Watts into functional, useful systems. Intel now owes a lot more business to Unix and its variants than to = MS-Windows. It=E2=80=99s not unreasonable IMHO to say that Unix and its variants = =E2=80=9CChanged the World=E2=80=9D and are now are the most prevalent = O/S on the planet. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Sorry for the long piece - I know that TUHS is not the forum for these = observations not confined to Early Unix. I=E2=80=99d have moved this to COFF, but I=E2=80=99ve not been able to = get onto that list so far. regards steve -- Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design=20 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915) PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin