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40 Years of Multics, 1969-2009

Posted by timothy on from the before-my-appearance-in-the-womb dept.

gribll writes "October 2009 marked an important milestone in the history of computing. It was exactly 40 years since the first Multics computer system was used at MIT. The interview is with Multics co-developer, MIT Professor and Turing Award winner Fernando J. Corbato. Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) is regarded as the foundation of modern time-sharing systems. Multics was the catalyst for the development of Unix and has been used as a model of operating system design since its release four decades ago. There is also a picture gallery of Multics history."

12 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Favorite quote by alecto · · Score: 5, Funny

    "In hindsight we might have picked a simpler language than PL/I, . . ." Now there's an understatement!

    1. Re:Favorite quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      As Multics begat UNIX, PL/I lives on within the development community of .... SAS.

  2. obKanye by Fortunato_NC · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey Multics, I'm really happy for ya, and imma let you finish, but UNIX is the best multiuser operating system of ALL TIME. OF. ALL. TIME.

    --
    Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
  3. Slashdot is bad with anniversaries by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    October 2009 marked an important milestone in the history of computing

    and they waited until november to tell you!

  4. "Bloated"? Oh, FFS. by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's true that Multics couldn't get out of its own way on a system with 64K of RAM, although it was technically supposed to run on that configuration. To work well, it really wanted several hundred K of RAM. Thank heavens we left it in the dustbin of history, replaced by the crisp, clean efficiency of Windows, or OS X, or Linux.

  5. Re:40 Years of Multics, 1969-2009 by Stupid+McStupidson · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, it's better than: "KIS,YSFM"

  6. Forty-year anniversaries -- what connection? by zooblethorpe · · Score: 2, Funny

    So I've got to ask, does this have any synchronic significance with the recent 40-year anniversary of Sesame Street recently splashed around Google's main page?

    Hmm... "This episode brought to you by the letters P, L, and I, and the number pi!" :)

    Cheers,

    --
    "What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
    "A four-foot prune."
  7. Re:Hmm, Multics and Sesame Street, both 40 years o by satellite17 · · Score: 4, Funny

    indeed,

    This episode of Multics was brought to you by the letters P and L and the number 1

  8. Real-Time, too! by delphi125 · · Score: 2, Funny

    As Roger Needham quipped, Multics was design for the real-time processes of geological processes.

  9. Re:Um, wasn't bloated Multics the reason *WHY* . . by vlm · · Score: 3, Funny

    Of course the Current version of Linux or BSD is probably more "bloated" then the last version of Multics.

    Sure, trade in a 40 year old operating system for two 20s, just because its a little bloated after giving you the best years of its life... Does this tty driver make my kernel look fat?

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  10. Re:If it was so good by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just in time to compete with HURD.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  11. Re:Remember punch cards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Singer made farming equipment?