title: A Quarter Century of Unix
        by: Peter H. Salus
 publisher: Addison-Wesley 1994
  subjects: computing, history
     other: 256 pages, photos, glossary, index
   summary: from Space Travel to Plan 9 and Linux

_A Quarter Century of Unix_ is an oral history of Unix in the form of
an annotated collection of reminiscences.  It begins at the "birth"
of Unix, with Ken Thompson looking for a machine to play Space Travel
on, then jumps back to provide the context, both in the history
of computing in general and in the particular setup at Bell Labs.
Part two describes the work done up to 1974, both on Unix and on the
tools and language (C) so closely associated with it.  Part three
tries to pin down some of the things that made Unix unique: its
style, the strong contributions by users and user groups, and the key
role of some of its more famous tools.  Parts four and five trace
the expansion of Unix: the development of BSD and the commercial
Unixes, the creation of SUN, the ambivalent relationship with DEC,
and attempts at standardization.  The final section offers an overview
of the current status of Unix (in its many different versions) and
offers some suggestions as to where it is heading.  There is also
a very brief glance at some of the systems that it has influenced,
including Bell Lab's new Plan 9 system.  The finale has Dennis Ritchie,
Brian Kernighan and others offering their ideas on what made Unix work.
Particularly noteworthy is the solid treatment of legal issues (three
chapters altogether) and the coverage of events outside the United
States (in Australia, Europe and Japan).

The format of _A Quarter Century of Unix_, with most of the text in
the form of extended quotations (some scores of people are quoted
from at length), runs the risk of discontinuity and lack of focus.
Salus has chosen and edited his source material well, however,
and inserted his own summary and exposition in appropriate places.
The result is both informative and enjoyable, with a good balance
between the personal and the technical.

I did spot a few minor inconsistencies in the text -- on page 155 we
read "It was 32V that became 3BSD in 1979", though the Unix versions
tree on page 61 shows no such influence -- and errors -- on page 253
we have "It was clear that AT&T hadn't objected to other derivatives:
Linux, MINIX, etc.  In the autumn of 1988...", implying that Linux
existed in 1988 (and Linus' name is misspelt in the index, too).
But these are just quibbles.  A more weighty criticism would be
that the book sometimes reads more like myth than history, with
the participants portrayed like epic heroes.  This may worry the
historians, but in a way it is the legends and myths that are the
most influential, so the distinction is perhaps moot.

You don't need a lot of technical knowledge to read _A Quarter Century
of Unix_, but the more you know about Unix (and to a lesser extent
about architectures and operating systems) the more you will get out
of it -- if you've never used awk, for example, you will probably
have little interest in reading about its origins and development.
The main audience will be programmers, administrators and users with
extensive Unix experience, but people in marketing and management might
well learn a thing or two from it, and historians and sociologists
studying the computer industry will find Salus' work an essential
source of primary material.  _A Quarter Century of Unix_ should be
a great success; it's only surprising that it wasn't written years ago!

--

Disclaimer: I requested and received a review copy of _A Quarter Century
of Unix_ from Addison-Wesley, but I have no stake, financial or
otherwise, in its success.

--

%T	A Quarter Century of Unix
%A	Peter H. Salus
%I	Addison-Wesley
%C	Reading, Massachusetts
%D	1994
%O	paperback, photos, glossary, index
%G	ISBN 0-201-54777-5
%P	xii,256pp
%K	computing, history

Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
1 December 1994