news
UNIX v4 and Unix V7 Coming Back, Sort of
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Retro Computing ☛ Unix V4 tape found at The University of Utah
This is particularly exciting because there is no known complete V4 image, although some artifacts (including the complete manual sources) are known to exist. V4 was the first version of Unix with a C kernel (for which partial sources are known).
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OS News ☛ Tape containing UNIX v4 found
A unique and very important find at the University of Utah: while cleaning out some storage rooms, the staff at the university discovered a tape containing a copy of UNIX v4 from Bell Labs. At this time, no complete copies are known to exist, and as such, this could be a crucial find for the archaeology of early UNIX. The tape in question will be sent to the Computer History Museum for further handling, where bitsavers.org will conduct the recovery process.
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The Radiant Computer Team ☛ Why not Linux?
I’m often asked why I’m not building Radiant on top of Linux. After all, it’s a solid foundation on which to build a computer. While this is true, and I use a Linux distribution as my daily driver for software development, I don’t think Linux is the future. It simply has too much historical baggage and design decisions inherited from Unix V7, which are outdated today.
Update
More here:
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Have They Found A Complete UNIX V4?
If you’ve ever combed boxes of old tech detritus in search of a nugget of pure gold, we know you’ll appreciate the excitement of discovering, in a dusty University of Utah storeroom, a tape labelled “UNIX Original from Bell Labs V4 (See manual for format)”. If the tape contains what’s promised on the label, this is a missing piece of computer history, because no complete copies of this version are known to exist.