The last true Unix

[goingsomewhere]

I heard that Version 7 Unix is the last true Unix according to this wiki link. My question is what makes Version 7 very different from other recent Unix varieties?

 

[Ijack]

The Wiki link explains why some people think that Version 7 was the last true UNIX. Nothing more to add other than that it's a meaningless statement.

 

[randomizer]

After checking the reference I think it's the author's opinion based on the fact that it introduced some nice features. While this might make it better than earlier versions, I don't know enough about Unix to say if it makes it any more "true" than later versions.

 

[linux_0]

Randomizer and ijack are correct, that's just the author's opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

There's been many arguably very good Unices and Unix clones released after 1979 and it's hard to justify the second part of the statement about it being "an improvement over all following Unices".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Unix_history-simple.en.svg

While Version 7 was released 31 years ago in human years, in computer and internet years that's more like 310 to 3100 years ago.

Unfortunately Version 7's of very limited usefulness since it won't run on modern hardware, there's an x86 port that's being developed but it's highly experimental.

Semper Fi

 

[linux_0]

....or you'll need a PDP11 emulator to run it.

Semper Fi

 

[amdfangirl]

What arch was it designed for?

*Brushes dust off her PowerBook G4*

 

[linux_0]

Circa 1979, there were ports for PDP11, VAX, the first Sun workstations, Interdata 7/32 and some 30 years later an experimental version for x86.

The first four are roughly 30-40 years old and all but extinct not to mention they're completely obsolete. The PDP11 was 16 bit and only had a few KB to a max of 4MB of RAM.

Semper Fi

 

[audiovoodoo]

Am I missing something here? 5r4 was around in OpenServer days, why would 7 not support modern(ish) HW?

 

[Ijack]

Am I missing something here?

Yep - the rather arcane system of UNIX versions. 7th Version was released in 1979, SVr4 in 1989. Have a look here for a fairly simple version of the history of UNIX.

 

[linux_0]

Or you can look at the pretty SVG from wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe [...] ple.en.svg

There's a huge difference between SysVR4 and Version 7 in terms of the hardware they're designed to run on.

 

[cjcox]

AIX, HP-UX, DGUX, NCR SVR4, Motorola, NEC, etc are all derivatives of Unix. AIX, HP-UX are SVR2 derivatives. That's why you still see COFF (well.. AIX's Extended COFF) format in AIX. HP-UX's ELF like format allowed the use of an almost SVR4 feature, shared objects (except they had them even before Solaris came out).

So... all depends what is meant by "true Unix". All of the above can use the name Unix... so by that definition, they are true Unix.

Shoot even the awful Unix System Services on the mainframe uses the name Unix (and it's REALLY a stretch IMHO).

Maddog once said "Unix is a Linux-like operating system." So maybe Unix is sorta "false" and Linux is "true"

 

[audiovoodoo]

Yep - the rather arcane system of UNIX versions. 7th Version was released in 1979, SVr4 in 1989. Have a look here for a fairly simple version of the history of UNIX.

Thanks for the pointer, it's a great illustration of the innovation Ubuntu brought to the game with a version number system that even a dumb chimp can understand!

 

[amdfangirl]

Oh wow.

That's older than me.

So the rule on computing is, if it's older than AFG, don't bother.

 

[audiovoodoo]

And for all other items of life if it's younger than AFG you REALLY shouldn't bother...

 

[Pyroflea]

And for all other items of life if it's younger than AFG you REALLY shouldn't bother...

:lol:

 

[amdfangirl]

yup, it's all jailbait from that point.