Unix History

A Very Brief History of Unix

Introduction

The rise of Unix in the early 80s had much to do with economics and hardware, and little to do with Open Systems or any of the ex-post-facto justifications or explanations that have circulated. Quite simply, beginning with Sun Microsystems' first workstations, Unix was the software that ran on the best low-cost available hardware, and the number of Unix installations grew rapidly. You could put a workstation on everyone's desk, and still have spend less than a mainframe would have cost.

The Benifits of Unix

The other factor in Unix's growth was education. Ultimatley, this also related to economics. Schools were turning out loads of very competent computer users (and systems programmers) who already knew Unix. You could therefore "buy" a ready-made programming staff. You didn't have to train them on the intricacies of some unknown operating system. It takes a long time to become an expert; with Unix, you can buy them ready-made. Also, cost other operating systems have remained more-or-less the same from their invention until there obsolescance. Once again, Unix's popularity was due to economics: users want new features, vendors want to sell new features, defeloping new features in-house is expensive.

Unix Growth Clarified

Unix growth was immense in the early years of its development as indictaed by this chart: Graph
Unix is still growing, however is not growing as fast as it was in the early years when businesses and organizations were buying their first operating systems.

Definitions

Unix-: A computer operating system developed by AT&T in 1969. The system is still recognized as a stabile, reliable, and arguably the best operating system.
Open Systems-: Open systems are computer systems that provide some combination of interoperability, portability, and open software standards.
Graphical User Interface(GUI)-: A type of computer interface that allows the user to interact with programs in more ways than typing, such as using a mouse or joypad.

If you would like any more information on Unix, GUI, or Open Systems, try the following websites:

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