Brian Kernighan Reflects on Unix: A History and a Memoir [video]

It's definitely a bit of a melancholy read. Some of the people who invented Unix are long gone, and we probably don't have a lot of time left with the people who are still with us. I'm glad Brian was able to tell the full story while there's still time left. We take Unix for granted, but its the basis of most of the modern operating system world.

Read it too, and I had a similar feeling. To me it was the thought that we will probably never see a place like Bell labs -a temple to knowledge, to gather great minds and let them work on whatever they think might have interesting outcomes, no matter how long it takes to obtain results and without having to worry about short-term financial issues. Now researchers -in my country anyways- are forced into mostly researching ways to obtain funding and doing a little bit of actual research, almost as a side gig.

Unix was the first accessible real computer system like we know it. I worked with AT&T and Bell Atlantic for a project, and they provided several 3B2 systems for the project and for us to work on them in ~1992. They were used internally for all sorts of business applications, and the interface was typically a green screen like a Televideo 9xx. The only other systems I found that accessible and easy to use were Sun-like CAD workstation knockoffs that ran BSD 4.3 Unix in ~1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3B_series_computers#3B2

I wanted to read "Unix: A History and a Memoir" but I couldn't find how to buy a DRM-free copy. It looks really good and I am glad to read that someone liked it.

I’m one of the creators of the podcast. Thanks for linking to the site!

If you’re not familiar with the podcast, we read and discuss a new software engineering book each week. When we can, we interview the authors, like we just did with Brian.

I'm sure I read years ago that he pronounces it with a hard G. Does he pronounce it that way in the video or just the presenters?

The pronunciation is shown here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan

Also note BK's preference for his Desert-Island Programming Language:

"He has said that if stranded on an island with only one programming language it would have to be C."

I trust that the air-gap would keep him safe. ^_^

Improving audio with AI would be a good thing for @Google/@YouTube to put time/effort in! :-)