Re: [TUHS] First book on Unix for general readership

[Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com>]

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Two thoughts ...

1.) Lion's was not a general book.  It really was more of a kernel
'here-is-how-the-magic-happens.'   It's still the best I know for that.
BTW:  it did not leak.  It was purchasable from WE.   But the cost was high
and it was hard to get (you had a price you had a license and could not
buy/order it at any book store - I don't think it had an ISBN or a library
congress number originally).

I know a couple of the schools (like CMU) wanted to use it for the OS
course, but there was some hang-up associated with it in the mid-70s, which
I don't remember - we did have a couple of sections passed out for a few
lecture.  But because of how it was bound (and short), it was photocopied s
others have pointed out.

I think Michigan managed to use the whole thing for their OS course, as I
seem to remember that both Ted Kowalski and Bill Joy got copies there
(although my memory is that they both had photocopies not the original
Orange and Red bindings).  Ted brought it to CMU, which is how I first saw
it (and I think my original copy was a duplicate of his). And I remember
seeing a photocopy in wnj's office at UCB.  The first time I saw
the official Red/Orange bound version was when I ordered it at Tektronix
from WE a few years later, but I had to leave it there when I went back to
grad school.


2.) The question asked about general 'Unix' text -- my favorite is still
Rob and Brian's and I still recommend it (particularly to learn how to
>>use<< UNIX/Linux today by doing the exercises), but it was not first.
 Steve's certainly was early and I thought it was a good explanation and
until Rob and Brian became available was what I suggested when people
asked.  In fact, early Masscomp system's shipped Bourne's text, until Tim
wrote the original 'UNIX In a Nutshell' that started his empire.    That
said, I do seem to remember there was another book around the same time
(79-80 ish) that had a light blue cover that came from one 'PC-press'
publishers.   I wish I could remember the author and the name.  I remember
looking at a copy in Powell's in Portland when it came out and not being
impressed.

On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 8:08 PM Larry McVoy <lm@mcvoy.com> wrote:

> Do the Bell Labs technical journals count?  I have a collection of Unix
> papers that were puled out and published together in two volumes.  That
> stuff was a gold mine of information in the 80's.
>
> On Sun, Apr 05, 2020 at 07:57:55PM -0400, Ronald Natalie wrote:
> > The Lions book wasn???t really published back in the day.   It was only
> targetted at his students in Australia (though copies leaked out).
> >
> > The manuals aren???t really a book (and again, they weren???t really
> published as a book) and most of the prose on UNIX was more in the form of
> articles than an entire book.
>
> --
> ---
> Larry McVoy                  lm at mcvoy.com
> http://www.mcvoy.com/lm
>

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