UNIX operating system
Software theme
AT&T Bell Labs UNIX, from which various branches & versions can trace their lineage (Linux is not one of them). Trademark now owned by The Open Group.
39
games
2platforms
This is a rough UNIX (and BSD) timeline lacking details and not yet ready to be entered as events (there is a major lack of gaming info here as well):
1969 AT&T gives up on Multics allowing Ken Thompson to create UNIX to play Space Travel (in his spare time). UNIX is expanded to play Space War by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, others (in their spare time). They get the computer time for free, valued at $50–$75 dollars (not cents) per play (about $275–$412 in today's economy).
1971 1st Edition UNIX is first put to illegitimate use such as processing text and text documents. ($412 per hour to process text documents seems like such a waste)
1973 4th Edition UNIX rewritten in C. Thus, available to non PDP platforms. Copyrighted and closed source code is still an alien concept to programmers at this point in history.
1975 6th Edition UNIX/UNIX Version 6 becomes widely available (in laboratories). BSD version 1 non-derivative source code is created by observing UNIX v6 code.
1977 AT&T sues over BSD.
1979 7th Edition UNIX Bourne shell, C, UUCP. Ported to the VAX. The kernel swelled to a massive 40K.
1980 Xenix Microsoft publishes Xenix (Microsoft UNIX). Some BSD features are used for Xenix. UNIX/32V created for VAX. 4BSD released.
1982 UNIX System III made available to the general public. SunOS 1.0 and HP-UX become available. Ultrix-11 is DEC's own version of UNIX.
1983 The GNU Project is announced and volunteers begin writing GNU replacements for UNIX software. It all runs on UNIX for now, the kernel is planned.
1983 UNIX System V. Computer Research Group (CRG) and UNIX System Group (USG) and one other group merge into UNIX System Development Lab. UNIX System V gets official AT&T support. 45,000 computers install a supported version.
1984 4.2BSD adds TCP/IP and many other features divergent from UNIX. X/Open is formed to encourage open standards and interoperability between the different UNIXum.
1984 UNIX System V Release 2. 100,000 supported installations internationally.
1986 4.3BSD adds Internet name server. System V Interface Definition (SVID) created for UNIX (and BSD) interoperability. AIX announced. 250,000 Systen V supported installations.
1987 UNIX System V Release 3 has 750,000 supported installations. AT&T insists vendors use SVID2 if they want to brand their products "System V R3". IRIX introduced.
1988 POSIX.1 published. It will eventually replace all previous interoperability standards. However, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) and UNIX International are formed at this time for the same reasons. Ultrix 4.2 ships.
1989 work by Lynne and William Jolitz on porting BSD to IBM compatibles begins. It will be called 386BSD.
1989 Motif 1.0 ships (It's UNIX's own GUI).
1989 UNIX System V Release 4 ships. It integrates System V, 4.3BSD, SunOS, and Xenix. Supported installations on 1.2 million computers.
1990 Plan 9 from Bell Labs ships.
1990 4.3BSD-Reno (the basis for 4.3BSD Net/2) is published. 4.3BSD Net/2 will become the root of the modern BSD tree (other BSD branches dead-end)
1991 386BSD, the first useful UNIX-like for IBM-compatibles, reaches version 0.1. Legal issues will keep it caged until 1992. It will not last long but begins to pave the legal way for it's derivative, FreeBSD. Version 0.1 influences NetBSD. NetBSD leads to OpenBSD.
1991 UNIX System Laboratories (USL) becomes a company but AT&T owns most of the stock. Because 386BSD, or any other suitable UNIX-line is not available, Linus Torvalds commences Linux development. Solaris 1.0 (SunOS 5.0) is available.
1991-09-17 The barley finished Linux kernel is made available. GNU volunteers immediately begin porting GNU software for UNIX to what they call GNU/Linux.
1992 386BSD 0.1 navigates legal barriers and is published. It will see a 1.0 release which is a dead end for this BSD flavor. However, 0.1 will live on as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and their derivatives.
1992-10 UNIX System V Release 4.2
1992-12-22 Novell announces intent to acquire USL. Solaris 2.0 is released.
1993 4.4BSD is Berkeley's last release of BSD.
1993-06-16 Novell acquires USL (But AT&T still owns majority shares?)
1993 The "UNIX" trademark belongs to Novell and Spec 1170 (the Single UNIX Specification) is given to to X/Open.
1993-12 Novell UNIX System V Release 4.2MP published.
1994 "Single UNIX Specification BSD 4.4-Lite" is released. All code that AT&T, USL, and Novell claim is there's, if it was or not, has been removed. UNIX trademark given to X/Open who names renames Spec 1170 the "Single UNIX Specification" all main UNIX trademarks ownerships are separate from UNIX source code at this time.
1995 The X/Open UNIX 95 branding programme is announced. Microsoft renames "Chicago" to "Windows 95". Single UNIX Specification and the UNIX trademark can be used by any OS that meets the standard. Novell sells UnixWare to SCO. Digital UNIX published. UnixWare 2.0 published. OpenServer 5.0 debuts.
1996 OSF and X/Open merge and become "The Open Group", new owners of UNIX trademarks.
1997 The Open Group introduces Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification and published it on the Internet for all. IRIX 6.4, AIX 4.3 and HP-UX 11 are published. HP-UX 11 is used at HP's support centers (and is known to have been down only once since)
1998 The Open Group introduces the UNIX 98 brands (Base, Workstation, Server). Sun, IBM, and NCR release UNIX 98 products. Microsoft renames "Memphis" to "Windows 98". UnixWare 7 and IRIX 6.5 are published. The Open Source movement (thats "Free Software"/GNU without any "morality", their words not mine) starts to take off with Netscape and IBM joining the party.
1999 The Open Group and the IEEE joint forces to revise POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification. Tru64 UNIX is published. Linux kernel 2.2. 1st LinuxWorld conference. Dotcoms go full tulip-maina.
2001 Single UNIX Specification Version 3 aligns with IEEE POSIX. AIX 5L is published. Linux kernel 2.4. Dotcom goes boom! The UNIX brand is valued as $25 billion.
2003 Single UNIX Specification aligns with ISO/IEC 9945:2003 (single UNIX spec is officially international). UNIX 03 brand. Solaris 9.0 E published. Linux kernel 2.6.
2007 OS X is UNIX 03 certified (ISO/IEC 9945:2003). It;s now officially more UNIX than Linux and BSD are.
2008 ISO/IEC 9945:2008. UNIX brand valued at $69 billion
2009 UNIX brand valued at projected to be valued at $74 billion in 2013
2010 50 million desktops are UNIX Certified (OS X)
1969 AT&T gives up on Multics allowing Ken Thompson to create UNIX to play Space Travel (in his spare time). UNIX is expanded to play Space War by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, others (in their spare time). They get the computer time for free, valued at $50–$75 dollars (not cents) per play (about $275–$412 in today's economy).
1971 1st Edition UNIX is first put to illegitimate use such as processing text and text documents. ($412 per hour to process text documents seems like such a waste)
1973 4th Edition UNIX rewritten in C. Thus, available to non PDP platforms. Copyrighted and closed source code is still an alien concept to programmers at this point in history.
1975 6th Edition UNIX/UNIX Version 6 becomes widely available (in laboratories). BSD version 1 non-derivative source code is created by observing UNIX v6 code.
1977 AT&T sues over BSD.
1979 7th Edition UNIX Bourne shell, C, UUCP. Ported to the VAX. The kernel swelled to a massive 40K.
1980 Xenix Microsoft publishes Xenix (Microsoft UNIX). Some BSD features are used for Xenix. UNIX/32V created for VAX. 4BSD released.
1982 UNIX System III made available to the general public. SunOS 1.0 and HP-UX become available. Ultrix-11 is DEC's own version of UNIX.
1983 The GNU Project is announced and volunteers begin writing GNU replacements for UNIX software. It all runs on UNIX for now, the kernel is planned.
1983 UNIX System V. Computer Research Group (CRG) and UNIX System Group (USG) and one other group merge into UNIX System Development Lab. UNIX System V gets official AT&T support. 45,000 computers install a supported version.
1984 4.2BSD adds TCP/IP and many other features divergent from UNIX. X/Open is formed to encourage open standards and interoperability between the different UNIXum.
1984 UNIX System V Release 2. 100,000 supported installations internationally.
1986 4.3BSD adds Internet name server. System V Interface Definition (SVID) created for UNIX (and BSD) interoperability. AIX announced. 250,000 Systen V supported installations.
1987 UNIX System V Release 3 has 750,000 supported installations. AT&T insists vendors use SVID2 if they want to brand their products "System V R3". IRIX introduced.
1988 POSIX.1 published. It will eventually replace all previous interoperability standards. However, the Open Software Foundation (OSF) and UNIX International are formed at this time for the same reasons. Ultrix 4.2 ships.
1989 work by Lynne and William Jolitz on porting BSD to IBM compatibles begins. It will be called 386BSD.
1989 Motif 1.0 ships (It's UNIX's own GUI).
1989 UNIX System V Release 4 ships. It integrates System V, 4.3BSD, SunOS, and Xenix. Supported installations on 1.2 million computers.
1990 Plan 9 from Bell Labs ships.
1990 4.3BSD-Reno (the basis for 4.3BSD Net/2) is published. 4.3BSD Net/2 will become the root of the modern BSD tree (other BSD branches dead-end)
1991 386BSD, the first useful UNIX-like for IBM-compatibles, reaches version 0.1. Legal issues will keep it caged until 1992. It will not last long but begins to pave the legal way for it's derivative, FreeBSD. Version 0.1 influences NetBSD. NetBSD leads to OpenBSD.
1991 UNIX System Laboratories (USL) becomes a company but AT&T owns most of the stock. Because 386BSD, or any other suitable UNIX-line is not available, Linus Torvalds commences Linux development. Solaris 1.0 (SunOS 5.0) is available.
1991-09-17 The barley finished Linux kernel is made available. GNU volunteers immediately begin porting GNU software for UNIX to what they call GNU/Linux.
1992 386BSD 0.1 navigates legal barriers and is published. It will see a 1.0 release which is a dead end for this BSD flavor. However, 0.1 will live on as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and their derivatives.
1992-10 UNIX System V Release 4.2
1992-12-22 Novell announces intent to acquire USL. Solaris 2.0 is released.
1993 4.4BSD is Berkeley's last release of BSD.
1993-06-16 Novell acquires USL (But AT&T still owns majority shares?)
1993 The "UNIX" trademark belongs to Novell and Spec 1170 (the Single UNIX Specification) is given to to X/Open.
1993-12 Novell UNIX System V Release 4.2MP published.
1994 "Single UNIX Specification BSD 4.4-Lite" is released. All code that AT&T, USL, and Novell claim is there's, if it was or not, has been removed. UNIX trademark given to X/Open who names renames Spec 1170 the "Single UNIX Specification" all main UNIX trademarks ownerships are separate from UNIX source code at this time.
1995 The X/Open UNIX 95 branding programme is announced. Microsoft renames "Chicago" to "Windows 95". Single UNIX Specification and the UNIX trademark can be used by any OS that meets the standard. Novell sells UnixWare to SCO. Digital UNIX published. UnixWare 2.0 published. OpenServer 5.0 debuts.
1996 OSF and X/Open merge and become "The Open Group", new owners of UNIX trademarks.
1997 The Open Group introduces Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification and published it on the Internet for all. IRIX 6.4, AIX 4.3 and HP-UX 11 are published. HP-UX 11 is used at HP's support centers (and is known to have been down only once since)
1998 The Open Group introduces the UNIX 98 brands (Base, Workstation, Server). Sun, IBM, and NCR release UNIX 98 products. Microsoft renames "Memphis" to "Windows 98". UnixWare 7 and IRIX 6.5 are published. The Open Source movement (thats "Free Software"/GNU without any "morality", their words not mine) starts to take off with Netscape and IBM joining the party.
1999 The Open Group and the IEEE joint forces to revise POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification. Tru64 UNIX is published. Linux kernel 2.2. 1st LinuxWorld conference. Dotcoms go full tulip-maina.
2001 Single UNIX Specification Version 3 aligns with IEEE POSIX. AIX 5L is published. Linux kernel 2.4. Dotcom goes boom! The UNIX brand is valued as $25 billion.
2003 Single UNIX Specification aligns with ISO/IEC 9945:2003 (single UNIX spec is officially international). UNIX 03 brand. Solaris 9.0 E published. Linux kernel 2.6.
2007 OS X is UNIX 03 certified (ISO/IEC 9945:2003). It;s now officially more UNIX than Linux and BSD are.
2008 ISO/IEC 9945:2008. UNIX brand valued at $69 billion
2009 UNIX brand valued at projected to be valued at $74 billion in 2013
2010 50 million desktops are UNIX Certified (OS X)
Do NOT use for derivatives
Popular tags
aix alpha cards clanguage download hp-ux irix java mandriva mapgenerator opengl pdp-11 ppc roguelike sdl sgi sourcecodeavailable sparc ubuntu vorbis x11 x86 x86-64Parent group
Games by year
The first UNIX operating system video game was released in 1972.
New Breed Software and Digital Equipment Corporation published most of these games.
