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 738cbc21 for ; Sun, 13 Oct 2019 15:09:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 2F23F9BCB6; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:09:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95E14946B9; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:08:53 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 27C6E946B9; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:08:51 +1000 (AEST) X-Greylist: delayed 467 seconds by postgrey-1.36 at minnie.tuhs.org; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:08:49 AEST Received: from castor.opentrend.net (li1631-87.members.linode.com [172.104.51.87]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DC93093DBB for ; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:08:49 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mira.opentrend.net (mira.opentrend.net [119.18.33.224]) by castor.opentrend.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0DFE25A0C0 for ; Sun, 13 Oct 2019 15:00:58 +0000 (UTC) Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2019 01:00:43 +1000 (AEST) From: Robert Brockway X-X-Sender: robert@mira.opentrend.net To: tuhs@tuhs.org In-Reply-To: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> Message-ID: References: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (DEB 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII 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: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Fri, 11 Oct 2019, Warren Toomey wrote: > All, we had another dozen TUHS suscribers to the list overnight. Welcome. Well I've been on this list for 13 years (just checked) but I'll jump in. I've mostly lurked with probably less than 13 comments total. > So I'll kick off another thread. What was your "ahah" moment when you > first saw that Unix was special, especially compared to the systems you'd > previously used? I had run Microware OS-9 as a teenager which is somewhat Unix like so some commands were familiar to me from the outset, but my Unix ahah moment is almost embarrassingly simple. I was trying to arrange to meet with a fellow student during 2nd year at University to work on a project. It was 1992 so neither of us had a calendar readily available. I turned to the dumbterm in front of me and said "If Unix had a calendar command I think it would be 'cal'". I typed cal and when it worked I realised I found Unix so much more intuitive than other OSes I had used in the past. I used Unix at university for the next couple of years, installed Linux at home in 1994 and a year later I founded a Unix user group[1]. At the first meeting I hoped we wouldn't run out of things to talk about. I had a lot to learn. [1] Which is still going to this day. http://www.humbug.org.au. Rob