I tried an ngram search on google, and came up with the following: Richard L. Gauthier. October 1981. Using the Unix System, Reston Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0835981644. That seems to precede the Bourne book. Available at amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Using-Unix-System-Richard-Gauthier/dp/0835981649 Michael On Sun, Apr 5, 2020 at 5:28 PM Clem Cole wrote: > 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 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 >> > -- Michael Usher Senior Wireless Network Engineer University of California, Santa Cruz musher@ucsc.edu 831-459-3697