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Ken Thompson's Last Day At Bell Labs

Posted by Hemos on from the bye-bye-american-pie dept.

A reader writes: "I was doing some research on Bell-Labs, and I stumbled across Ken Thompson's Chess page. ( that's not the interesting part ) The interesting part is that at the top he says that he's leaving Bell Labs yesterday - Dec 1 2000, to pursue flight instruction full time. I dont know about everyone else, but it seems sort of important that one of the co-creators of Unix appears to be retiring."

4 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. this for Ken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    FP for the man

  2. First Ed Roberts, now this by allanc · · Score: 5

    Ed Roberts, founder of MITS and creator of the Altair 8800 (widely acknowledged as the first personal computer), is now a small-town doctor.

    Ken Thompson, co-creator of Unix, is now a flight instructor.

    What's next? Douglas Engelbart becoming a professional bowler? Tim Berners-Lee realizing his life-long dream of becoming a plumber?

  3. A round of applause.... by LiteForce · · Score: 5
    This man helped to give the world an operating system that has survived the test of time and will most likely outlive anything Bill Gates or his gang will ever create... what greater legacy could this man have left to his profession or his peers ?

    99% of the world would like to think of Mr. Gates as the father of the operating system revolution - but the remaining 1% of the world who use and appreciate the elegance of Ken Thompson's work are enough to make him a character sorely missed from the field of computing...

    ... and let's not even forget his contribution in the form of the C programming language!

    I think I speak for everyone here when I say "THANKS FOR EVERYTHING KEN!!"

    "Hmmm.... they have the Internet on computers now ?" - Homer Simpson

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    "Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wuntime ewwors!" - Elmer Fudd
  4. I can see where this is going... by StandardDeviant · · Score: 5

    Yeah, sure, it starts out all innocent. He's just flying planes, right?

    Hmm, next thing you know he's taking lessons at SpaceCamp. Just a retirement hobby...

    Then first thing you know he's launched himself into space (who wouldn't want to curry favor with the phone company?), and is paradropping Plan 9 media kits into Linux/*BSD strongholds.

    Yes, it could be pretty successful, dropping Plan 9 from Outer Space...


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