UNIX: A History and a Memoir
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- Create Date：2021-03-07 03:18:09
- Update Date：2025-09-07
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- Author：Brian W. Kernighan
- ISBN：B07ZQHX3R1
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Summary
The fascinating story of how Unix began and how it took over the world。 Brian Kernighan was a member of the original group of Unix developers， the creator of several fundamental Unix programs， and the co-author of classic books like "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming Environment。"
Reviews
Frank Rouse
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers。 To view it， click here。 Much better than I thought it would be。 Turns out all you really need to start writing an operating system is for your wife to visit her parents for 3 weeks。
pmk
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I love hearing stories about Bell Labs and the early days of computing， so this one hit the spot
Helen
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It is fascinating how a system， designed 50 years ago， is still successful without any major architectural change。 The Unix principles， that stand in the roots of the design decisions of this OS， are a good explanation for that phenomenon。 However， this book confirms one's suspicion of how great the people， who worked then at Bell Labs， were， as in order to design a truly flexible system - one needs to be empathetic， to always keep in mind that they will not be the only ones using it。 It is exci It is fascinating how a system， designed 50 years ago， is still successful without any major architectural change。 The Unix principles， that stand in the roots of the design decisions of this OS， are a good explanation for that phenomenon。 However， this book confirms one's suspicion of how great the people， who worked then at Bell Labs， were， as in order to design a truly flexible system - one needs to be empathetic， to always keep in mind that they will not be the only ones using it。 It is exciting and somewhat nostalgic to read stories about true collaboration， creative brainstorming， and friendly pranks。 All of that topped up with a history of how and why certain Unix tools （many of which are still in use today） were developed。 Must read for everyone who's into Unix-like systems or even simply open source。 。。。more
Khashayar Danesh
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For me， this book represents all the sentimental values of efforts put into a project that turned out to change the computation and therefore the way things are operated in many different levels。 The work done in Bell labs， has basically made the 21st century as we know it possible。 While reading about such significant work， many aspects are lost， this book not only tries to provide an overview of the technical fields of discussion and challenges， does not leave the people who did the work out。 For me， this book represents all the sentimental values of efforts put into a project that turned out to change the computation and therefore the way things are operated in many different levels。 The work done in Bell labs， has basically made the 21st century as we know it possible。 While reading about such significant work， many aspects are lost， this book not only tries to provide an overview of the technical fields of discussion and challenges， does not leave the people who did the work out。 After all， people are the ones who do the things and products are just results， reading this book gave me a better set of insights on what happened in Bell Labs and how。 。。。more
ggarlic
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基本就是老爷爷在回忆 good old days 对 at&t bell lab 各种温情回忆，篇幅跟 unix 一样多
Gohar Irfan
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Goes over some of the most monumental creations in modern computing （Unix， C， a whole set of everyday use tools like awk， grep， bash）， the environment that led to those and the phenomenal people driving it all。 Very exciting to get a glimpse of how a leading industrial lab of the time operated and the culture they had for promoting truly creative and revolutionary ideas。 The book gets a bit too specific in some parts with particular people and timelines which are not extremely interesting or of Goes over some of the most monumental creations in modern computing （Unix， C， a whole set of everyday use tools like awk， grep， bash）， the environment that led to those and the phenomenal people driving it all。 Very exciting to get a glimpse of how a leading industrial lab of the time operated and the culture they had for promoting truly creative and revolutionary ideas。 The book gets a bit too specific in some parts with particular people and timelines which are not extremely interesting or of particular interest to me at least; but in large part， it's a gripping journey through the birth of an operating system that is powering the world today。 。。。more
Michael E。
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More of a memoir， but very interesting if you are interested at what it was like to work in an environment like Bell Labs， and being involved with the creation of something that ended up having a huge influence on the world。
Charlie Harrington
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A tiny， delightful memoir of Unix and the people behind its creation and success。 It’s wonderful to get such a personal history of Unix from one of its earliest collaborators。 I use Unix tools every day and I’ve never been more excited to get back to my computer and make stuff happen。
Mohammad Tanviruzzaman
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This is first hand account of the development of the influential operating system UNIX （offshoots of which run on majority of the devices today） and the peak and the dismantling of the wondrous Bell labs where they had 9 Nobel prizes and 4 Turing awards。 There were John Bardeen， Claude Shannon， Richard Hamming， John Tukey， Robert Tarjan， Dennis Ritchie， Bjarne Stroustrup， Alfred Aho; in the book we get to meet many of them。 Kernighan is sincere and honest。 It has many good stories。 However， the This is first hand account of the development of the influential operating system UNIX （offshoots of which run on majority of the devices today） and the peak and the dismantling of the wondrous Bell labs where they had 9 Nobel prizes and 4 Turing awards。 There were John Bardeen， Claude Shannon， Richard Hamming， John Tukey， Robert Tarjan， Dennis Ritchie， Bjarne Stroustrup， Alfred Aho; in the book we get to meet many of them。 Kernighan is sincere and honest。 It has many good stories。 However， the print quality overall is not great。 A few overarching threads I found interesting are:1。 Ken Thompson et al。 from Bell labs were directly involved in MIT's ambitious MULTICS project that suffered from the second-system effect。 The design of UNIX was greatly influenced by the fresh memory of the mistakes in that project。2。 UNIX started conservative。 Perhaps the memory of MULTICS along with the management's very miserly initial reaction to operating systems， kept them alert about KISS philosophy。3。 It was C and UNIX pair that made it so great。 C was much higher level than then-prevailing assembly language and thus much more user-friendly， yet efficient enough to be used for systems programming。 Once UNIX was written in C， OS became decoupled from hardware; porting the OS now meant much easier task of porting the C compiler。4。 Ken Thompson seems like a pretty cool guy and the most important hero in the UNIX story。 Among many of his great works like C's predecessor B， grep， UTF-8， Go， he was the main person behind Belle， the first Chess computer that was Master-level。 。。。more
Mark Davis
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This is obviously a book for a fairly narrow audience; it isn't really very technical， but it's a history of something that will only be interesting to IT professionals and programmers。 If you've had any experience with Unix， though， this is its origin story， and it's a very enjoyable read if that's your kind of thing。 Personally I found it really interesting。 This is obviously a book for a fairly narrow audience; it isn't really very technical， but it's a history of something that will only be interesting to IT professionals and programmers。 If you've had any experience with Unix， though， this is its origin story， and it's a very enjoyable read if that's your kind of thing。 Personally I found it really interesting。 。。。more
Ed Sponsler
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An inspirational storyAn inspirational story about the creation of the UNIX operating system and the heroic technical and managerial mindset of AT&T's 1127。 An inspirational storyAn inspirational story about the creation of the UNIX operating system and the heroic technical and managerial mindset of AT&T's 1127。 。。。more
Eduardo Sorribas
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Great read！ I really enjoyed Brian Kernighan's writing style。 It feels like he's just casually telling us stories from back in the Unix days。There's a lot of interesting stuff here。 Of course a lot of historical details， but to me the best parts are all the anecdotes about how different aspects of Unix came to be， and about all the people that worked on them。I think anyone with an interest in computer programming would enjoy this book。 Great read！ I really enjoyed Brian Kernighan's writing style。 It feels like he's just casually telling us stories from back in the Unix days。There's a lot of interesting stuff here。 Of course a lot of historical details， but to me the best parts are all the anecdotes about how different aspects of Unix came to be， and about all the people that worked on them。I think anyone with an interest in computer programming would enjoy this book。 。。。more
Rob Warner
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Fascinating tale of the birth and evolution of Unix， which starts from just before my birth and continues to this day。 I'm astonished at how many decisions made back then have stood through the present day。 I work on Unix-based operating systems （Linux and macOS） nearly daily。 The tools Kernighan discusses， I use all the time。 I'm glad that the 1127 folks made the decisions they did！ I was amused， though， to read about the "make" decision to use significant whitespace， and how early they wanted Fascinating tale of the birth and evolution of Unix， which starts from just before my birth and continues to this day。 I'm astonished at how many decisions made back then have stood through the present day。 I work on Unix-based operating systems （Linux and macOS） nearly daily。 The tools Kernighan discusses， I use all the time。 I'm glad that the 1127 folks made the decisions they did！ I was amused， though， to read about the "make" decision to use significant whitespace， and how early they wanted to change that， but couldn't because by then a dozen people were already using "make。" The curse of backwards compatibility！ 。。。more
Jim and Ellen Belesiu
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Quick read; very enjoyable， especially if you are a fan of technology history。 I always wondered what it would be like to work at Bell Labs （back in the day） and Brian's book gave a nice insight on that。 Quick read; very enjoyable， especially if you are a fan of technology history。 I always wondered what it would be like to work at Bell Labs （back in the day） and Brian's book gave a nice insight on that。 。。。more
Thomas sawyer
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A Remarkable Tour of Bell Labs， Unix and Language DevelopmentBrian Kernighan packs as much history of computing technology into a single volume as one can in this comprehensive history of Unix。 Never excessively technical， always interesting and remarkably anecdotal。 As a member of the GE635 （and it's successors） community， I watched the unusual interests of Bell Labs Multicians from afar as they evolved "B" "C" and some peculiar adaptation of a single user operating system。 It was a long time b A Remarkable Tour of Bell Labs， Unix and Language DevelopmentBrian Kernighan packs as much history of computing technology into a single volume as one can in this comprehensive history of Unix。 Never excessively technical， always interesting and remarkably anecdotal。 As a member of the GE635 （and it's successors） community， I watched the unusual interests of Bell Labs Multicians from afar as they evolved "B" "C" and some peculiar adaptation of a single user operating system。 It was a long time before I had the chance to run a business operation under the final result。 This book filled in all the missing pieces crisply with humor and insight beyond expectation。 Congratulations to the author for taking the time to explain and entertain。 We need a great many more pioneers to do likewise。 。。。more
Vincent Ford
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Interesting but dryInteresting for those that use Unix to hear directly from an early user and developer of it。 But this a pretty dry text with not much color or excitement。 The most important case this book makes is the need for basic research and giving good people the time and resources to explore as Bell labs had done。
Romain
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Comme l’indique le sous-titre A History and a Memoir il s’agit pour Brian Kernighan – le K du célèbre K&R – de rédiger un livre de souvenirs qui tient lieu à la fois d’histoire d’Unix – ou UNIX。 C’est aussi à l’inverse un livre sur l’histoire d’Unix qui contient des anecdotes sur cette aventure et sur sa matrice， le Bell Labs et son fameux département 1127。 Kernighan insiste d’ailleurs beaucoup tout au long du livre sur l’importance de cette structure et des personnes qui y ont été rassemblées。 Comme l’indique le sous-titre A History and a Memoir il s’agit pour Brian Kernighan – le K du célèbre K&R – de rédiger un livre de souvenirs qui tient lieu à la fois d’histoire d’Unix – ou UNIX。 C’est aussi à l’inverse un livre sur l’histoire d’Unix qui contient des anecdotes sur cette aventure et sur sa matrice， le Bell Labs et son fameux département 1127。 Kernighan insiste d’ailleurs beaucoup tout au long du livre sur l’importance de cette structure et des personnes qui y ont été rassemblées。 C’est-à-dire sur l’aspect organisationnel et collaboratif。 Les membres de ce département formaient ce qui est appelé une jelled team dans le livre Peopleware et Brian Kernighan semble être du même avis que les auteurs de ce livre pour dire que ces liens ne se nouent pas de façon artificielle。> Fun。 It’s important to enjoy your work and the colleagues that you work with。 [Department] 1127 was almost always a fun place to be， not just for the work， but the esprit of being part of a remarkable group。 […] At the same time， there was zero， or even negative， enthusiasm for the kinds of team-building exercices that one often sees today。 Most of us saw them as artificial， pointless， and a waste of time。Il met aussi en avant d’autres facteurs qui ont permis au Bell Labs de devenir la formidable machine à innover qu’il fut。 Le livre The Idea Factory en donne une vision plus exhaustive。 Ces facteurs incluent un management doté d’une excellente connaissance technique laissant libre cours à l’innovation et à la créativité， mais il souligne également l’importance de la stabilité et du temps long qui nécessite une continuité dans le financement。> Stable funding was a crucial factor for research。 It meant that AT&T could take a long-term view and Bell Labs researchers had the freedom to explore areas that might not hava a near-term payoff and perhaps never would。 That’s contrast with today’s world， in which planning often seems to look ahead only a few months， and much effort is spent on speculating about financial results for the next quarter。Ce livre est aussi l’occasion de faire mieux connaissance avec les principaux créateurs du système d’exploitation dont les successeurs， Linux et Android， équipent l’écrasante majorité des périphériques que nous utilisons tous les jours， les lauréats du Turing Award de 1983: Ken Thompson et Dennis Ritchie。 Voici par exemple une anecdote révélatrice de l’état d’esprit d’un personnage comme Ken Thompson。> In 2006， he [Ken Thompson] moved to Google， where with Rob Pike and Robert Griesemer， he created the Go programming language。 I heard about his move from Entrisphere to Google from someone else， so I asked for confirmation。 His reply its true。 i didnt change the median age of google much， but i think i really shot the average [all lower case in the original message]。 kenTous les sujets sont abordés: Unix， sa philosophie （dont le fameux “do one thing and do it well”）， les outils （grep， diff， etc。） et la puissance induite par la capacité à les combiner， le langage C， l’importance de la documentation et c’est dans ce domaine que l’auteur s’est beaucoup illustré puisqu’il a travaillé sur des outils permettant d’écrire de la documentation professionnelle et a lui-même publié de nombreux ouvrages de références dont les deux plus connus sont certainement- The Elements of Programming Style，- The C Programming Language，- The Unix Programming Environment。Le livre est à la fois simple et complet。 Il présente les évènements dans un ordre chronologique en mêlant de l’histoire， de la technique， des anecdotes et des réflexions sur les raisons des succès ou des échecs。 C’est agréable à lire， relativement court et définitivement un très bon livre sur ce sujet。 Pour les amateurs， je conseille， en plus de The Idea Factory， et dans cet ordre- Rebel Code si vous cherchez un livre sur l’histoire de Linux et plus généralement sur celle du mouvement open source， vous l’avez trouvé。- The Art of UNIX Programming bien plus technique à réserver à des lecteurs professionnels du domaine。- Hackers un peu trop complexe à mon goût – ou au moins pour mon niveau d’anglais。Également publié sur mon blog。 。。。more
Kaviraj
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Interesting stories on Unix evolution， tools we use everyday and more imp remarkable people at Bell Labs。 Lots of takeaways on doing research and engineering well。Highly recommend for #Unix fans！ Kernighan style of writing 👌🏻 as usual。
Dylan
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Insightful look at a group of curious people who forever changed the world。
Seth Stubbs
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Lovely memoir about not just Unix but Bell Labs too。 If you're into computers at all this book is a must。 Lovely memoir about not just Unix but Bell Labs too。 If you're into computers at all this book is a must。 。。。more
Ramesh Naidu
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My favorite operating system 's historyA magical journey through the history of the most beloved and used operating system of all times from one of the pioneers who witnessed it first hand。 A must read for every programmer My favorite operating system 's historyA magical journey through the history of the most beloved and used operating system of all times from one of the pioneers who witnessed it first hand。 A must read for every programmer 。。。more
Dulguun
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History of Unix as told by one of its contributors。 If you're interested in Unix history， and wants to read about it from a personal point of view， this is for you。Includes biographies of people involved （Thompson and Ritchie were the core but there were many contributions from others）， how various Unix tools came to be， culture and life at Bell Labs， and development of Unix over the years。The book also goes over what makes an OS （filesystem， system calls， etc。）， C programming language， and auth History of Unix as told by one of its contributors。 If you're interested in Unix history， and wants to read about it from a personal point of view， this is for you。Includes biographies of people involved （Thompson and Ritchie were the core but there were many contributions from others）， how various Unix tools came to be， culture and life at Bell Labs， and development of Unix over the years。The book also goes over what makes an OS （filesystem， system calls， etc。）， C programming language， and author's work at Bell Labs。 。。。more
Robert
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a low 3 -- it was interesting to read someone that involved take on all that was going on！
Fred Bloggs
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Interesting and humbleI particularly enjoyed one quote， along the lines of "Unix's success is in part due to the tasteful choice of ideas"。 This makes me think of several things as positive examples - eg pipes and io redirection， and negative ones， the outstanding example of which， with its staggering inelegance， is Systemd。 Interesting and humbleI particularly enjoyed one quote， along the lines of "Unix's success is in part due to the tasteful choice of ideas"。 This makes me think of several things as positive examples - eg pipes and io redirection， and negative ones， the outstanding example of which， with its staggering inelegance， is Systemd。 。。。more
Makoa
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It's okay。 It should be titled 1127 Bell Labs: A Memoir， because the content is more about Kernighan's experience at Bell Labs than it is about the intricacies of UNIX。 It did provide a great overview of the development of UNIX which I did not know before I read the book。 It also enlightened me as to who made what contributions on UNIX--this however made me wish I was reading UNIX history book authored by Thompson or Ritchie instead。Ultimately， I would say I've learned more about Bell Labs in th It's okay。 It should be titled 1127 Bell Labs: A Memoir， because the content is more about Kernighan's experience at Bell Labs than it is about the intricacies of UNIX。 It did provide a great overview of the development of UNIX which I did not know before I read the book。 It also enlightened me as to who made what contributions on UNIX--this however made me wish I was reading UNIX history book authored by Thompson or Ritchie instead。Ultimately， I would say I've learned more about Bell Labs in the 80s than I cared to， and I still have a lot of unanswered questions about UNIX's history which is why I gave it 3/5 stars。 。。。more
Marek Karcz
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Fascinating book about UNIX historyThanks to this book I gained better understanding where UNIX comes from and intimate insight into the culture of one of the most important research departments that ever existed。 Today UNIX and its programming languages and styles affect huge part of human population and started many successful careers and businesses。 Well worth your time。
Vlad Bezden
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Great book， great history about Bell Labs， AT&T， Unix， Linux， C， C++ Shell， UTF-8， and other inventions of that time。The book also describes the culture， philosophy， hiring process， working experience， the relationship of Bell Labs of that time。This book very special for me， since I always was fascinated with Unix OS， C， but I did not know the history behind it。 I end up reading this book twice。
Arun
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Excellent read。 If you are a programmer who lives history of software tools， and also loves unix/linux ecosystem this book will be a delightful read。 Kernighan's unassuming style of writing is a breath of fresh air。 Very delightful read。 Excellent read。 If you are a programmer who lives history of software tools， and also loves unix/linux ecosystem this book will be a delightful read。 Kernighan's unassuming style of writing is a breath of fresh air。 Very delightful read。 。。。more
Adnan
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We all have used flavours of Unix one way or other （thanks， Travis） but not all of us know about how the geniuses of 60s and 70s and unmatched leadership provided us amazing tools like C， Awk and sed etc。Btw， Ken just took 3 weeks to come up with Unix。
Richard Elberger
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