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Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan

by f2f on 10/28/19, 2:30 AM with 139 comments

• by Natales on 10/28/19, 3:58 AM

  I've always felt we don't appreciate history very much in our industry.

  I've been lucky enough to work and hang out with some of the co-founders of very impactful projects, such as OpenStack and Cloud Foundry, and there are so many stories I've heard that I'm sure would be insightful and valuable lessons for whomever is embarking on new ideas. And yet, we all move so fast, that there is no time to stop and write them down.

  I'm glad BK did. UNIX is foundational to essentially all software-driven technology today, in one way or another. His book (along with Dennis Ritchie) on the C Programming Language made a huge impact for me as a CompSci student in the 80s, as did UNIX itself (Ultrix and DG/OS were my fist UNIX variants).

  I look forward to read his book.

• by sprachspiel on 10/28/19, 6:10 AM

  Everyone interested in the history of computing should read The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. The book pretends to be the biography by a little-known, but highly-influential guy named Licklider, but is in fact maybe the best general history of computing. It covers Turing, von Neumann, ARPA, Multics, DARPA (the internet), and Xerox PARC. Alan Key recommends it as the best history of PARC.

• by koffiezet on 10/28/19, 10:24 AM

  I'm always amazed how well Brian Kernighan can explain things. I love the episodes on the Computerphile youtube channel with him.

  Recently I discovered the AT&T history channel, with this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0

  There is a massive difference in appearance and clarity between him and the other people appearing in that video, even the "presenter"...

• by greatquux on 10/28/19, 3:14 PM

  Regarding availability of an ebook version, I just wrote to bwk and got back a reply within a few minutes:

  -----Original Message----- From: Brian Kernighan <bwk@cs.princeton.edu> To: Mike Russo <mike@papersolve.com> Subject: Re: please publish ebook of Unix memoir!! Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 11:12:48 -0400

  Mike --

  I have just uploaded a Kindle version, but it has to go through Amazon's approval, which could take a day. I also can't see a preview on a physical device, so I have no idea whether it will actually look right. If it doesn't, I'll have to pull it and figure out an alternative.

  Brian K

  On Mon, 28 Oct 2019, Mike Russo wrote:

  if you get an ebook of it out there it will sell even more!! and thanks for writing it!

  --

  Michael Russo, Systems Engineer PaperSolve, Inc. 268 Watchogue Road Staten Island, NY 10314 Your random quote for today: ..you could spend all day customizing the title bar. Believe me. I speak from experience. -- Matt Welsh

• by segmondy on 10/28/19, 3:38 AM

  I look forward to reading this

  I own and have read his following books and they were all superb!

     The Go Programming Language
     The Practice of Programming
     The C Programming Language
     The AWK Programming Language

• by jasoneckert on 10/28/19, 11:22 AM

  I read this one on Saturday (bought it from Amazon after I saw it posted here earlier in the week). It's very good at detailing how UNIX was developed in the early days and how it exploded after 1979 with V7 - and in a way that isn't difficult to read whatsoever. There are some sections about the inner workings of UNIX I already knew - but skimming through those allowed me to catch a few historical gems I didn't know.

• by aasasd on 10/28/19, 2:02 PM

  The ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’ on Amazon is pretty telling: the Snowden book, a Yubikey, an electronics testing tool, coolers for Raspberry Pi, retractable Ethernet cable, wire-type soldering iron tip cleaner (what even is that), and sandalwood shaving cream.

• by Myrmornis on 10/28/19, 3:12 AM

  Anyone able to comment on his recent non-programming-language books? For example, how's "Understanding The Digital World"?

  http://kernighan.com/udw.html

• by Aloha on 10/28/19, 3:18 AM

  I bought the book, and read it, enjoying it greatly.

  Amusingly, Alexa notified me when it arrived, and the notification was "Your purchase UNIX has arrived."

• by softinio on 10/28/19, 3:50 AM

  Is there a kindle/digital/ebook version of this book? I can't seem to find it.

• by bexsella on 10/28/19, 3:54 AM

  I haven't received my copy just yet, but I am keen to get reading it. Although there is some fun conversation to be had with people from a non-tech background when you're excited for your copy of Eunuchs: A History and a Memoir to arrive.

• by arduinomancer on 10/28/19, 4:03 AM

  I've seen a lot of Brian Kernighan on the YouTube Computerphile channel and he's very well spoken and interesting to listen to. Might have to pick this up.

• by sp0ck on 10/28/19, 7:30 AM

  Watching Brian Kernighan and Professor Brailsford on YT Computerfile is pure pleasure to hear and see how world look from their perspective and quite often allows to use the same principles today. We believe so much changed in his industry but some foundations are the same like 50 years ago :)

• by jen_h on 10/28/19, 3:51 PM

  Looking forward to reading this! Had the pleasure of seeing Brian Kernighan and Ken Thompson speak at VCF East earlier this year, totally worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6q5dv_B-o

  I highly recommend hitting up a Vintage Computer Festival if you've got the opportunity (http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/). Not only did Kernighan and Thompson speak, but also Joe Decuir of Atari & Amiga fame.

• by nindalf on 10/28/19, 12:04 PM

  The link says “Published by Kindle direct publishing” but I can’t find the kindle version on amazon. Or indeed any ebook version. Do Kindle books not show up for pre order usually?

• by rajesh-s on 10/28/19, 8:42 AM

  I agree with you on that we don't tend to appreciate history and attempt to be aware of how long things have been around. I'm looking forward to read this too!

  On that note, this post reminds me of another great book (eye-opener of sorts) that I read a while ago that takes the reader through the history of some important milestones in hardware and software https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Book-Artificial-Intelligence...

  After I read this, I was surprised to learn that the concept/ideas which seem very recent because of the interest/research around it have actually been around for a long time. For instance, I learnt that "Secure Multi Party Communication" has been around since 1982, Verilog since 1984, AI Medical diagnosis since 1975.

• by unlinked_dll on 10/28/19, 3:30 AM

  I find a lot of books on subjects I'm interested in are quite dry. Is this a departure from that? I'd like something I'd enjoy, and something I can buy as a gift for some family members who enjoy nonfiction on topics they aren't necessarily versed in.

• by notpeter on 10/28/19, 2:12 PM

  As others have noticed, there is no Kindle version. Look Inside is enabled so you can start reading in-browser: https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1695978552/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

  While the story/writing is interesting, like most self-published titles this book needs some professional layout/editing help. The second and sixth pages of chapter 1 are full page Google Maps of central NJ and Google Satellite view of Bell Labs. Eeek.

  This may also be why there is no Kindle version yet. Many pages have full-color images and would need significant changes for a decent Kindle reading experience.

• by dcminter on 10/28/19, 2:14 PM

  For those interested in the subject I can recommend the very readable "A Quarter Century of Unix" by Peter Salus.

• by davidgerard on 10/28/19, 1:37 PM

  Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243 in Books

  like, that's all books on Amazon US

• by xiaodai on 10/28/19, 6:11 AM

  Purchased right away!

• by iamjk on 10/28/19, 3:21 AM

  You'd think he would have found someone to design a nicer cover for him.

• by vymague on 10/28/19, 3:10 AM

  Probably not true. But it's fun to imagine that even Brian Kernighan were not able to find a publisher, and needed to resort to self-publishing.

• by f2f on 10/28/19, 2:58 AM

  Currently #1 in "Best Sellers in Computing Industry History" on amazon, which is somewhat of a weird category :)

• by nankomo on 10/28/19, 8:37 AM

  old is gold fit here