Unix, Microcomputers, 1985 on the Computer Chronicles

Hindsight is 20/20, so they say. I was a big fan of the PBS series "Computer Chronicles" during my university days. I suppose that was partially due to the fact I didn't have cable and it was a inexpensive way of learning about what was going on in the computer world. In any case, I recently discovered that many of the episodes of this show were online. When I have a chance, I flip through the archive and watch a bit of the show.

Today, I found an extremely interesting episode from 1985 on Unix. Since Linux and Macs are both derived from Unix, I thought I'd give this one a shot. At the time this show aired, I was still in high school and I owned a commodore 64 and loved using it. I don't think I had any knowledge of Unix at the time. I think my sister and cousins had encountered Unix by then at universities, but hated it.

"Will unix become the next MS-DOS?" asked Stuart, the host. Apparently, at this time "microcomputers" were becoming powerful enough to run Unix. Speculating that Unix may become THE DOS of the future, the show goes into a brief description of Unix.

Interestingly, some of the terminology of the show is fundamentally different than today. Specifically, what's the difference between mini and micro computers? I don't know, actually, but I can guess there is certainly a price difference!

Also interestingly, some of the criticisms of Unix brought up in the show are still relevant today. Specifically user friendliness. The demo someone gives of Unix is so user unfriendly that even the presenter pounds on the keys a bit and then just talks instead. Later, he even says that not everyone needs Unix...

Another big plus was C, the programming language (I don't think I touched C until the late 80's early 90's).

Another surprise to me was that Unix was widely considered unreliable at the time.

Various forms of unix were discussed or mentioned, including a GUI-driven HP (HP-UX) version.

In an opinion piece later in the show, Unix is panned as a microcomputer OS... "a user-hostile operating system"

In the news bit at the end, and the Pentagon's biggest threat at the time was a "Mentally unbalanced 16-year-old".

And for Gruber at Daring Fireball, there's a news item on keyboards!

Watch the episode