History of Computers - Unix

Unix is an operating system developed in 1969 by a group of computer scientists at AT&T's Bell Labs. It is one of the first operating systems not to be written in assembly laguage. From the very beginning, it has been an open-source technology, allowing it to become the software monolith that it is today.

Overview

Unix was written in the the high-level language of C, as opposed to most operating systems at the time, which were mostly written in assembly language ^[1]. Unix popularized the computer language of C, as well as fixing what many saw as flaws in previous systems. The free access to the code of Unix has permitted companies and individuals alike to modify the code to suit specific needs in a way that would normally be incredibly expensive if not entirely impossible. Over 30 separate operating systems can trace their roots to Unix, the most well known being Mac OSX, the OS that all Apple computers have run since Apple's acquisition of Next in 1996. For a full picture of the number of systems, follow this link ^[2].

Significance

Unix proved that it was possible to code an efficient and effective OS without using assembly language, revolutionizing the way operating system programming was done. It helped to move away from IBM and DEC dominated software, and created an individual-friendly atmosphere both through running on cheap hardware and being open source ^[3]. These two revolutionary changes put the pressure on programmers to create software that was flexible and could run on different brands of machine. The major changes brought about by Unix significantly advanced the capabilities of the software, and the open-sourced nature of Unix developed a new philosophy of programming known as Unix philosophy, which states programs should be written to do one thing, and do it well. ^[4] Unix also influenced the GNU Project, which set out in 1983 to create a free and open source Unix-like platform for users tired of having to deal with closed source, proprietary software.^[5] This standard for software and a major component of the free-software movement as a whole has become just as influential as the original software advances that Unix brought about.