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UNIX was invented
In 1969, a team of computer scientists created the UNIX system. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie used a PDP-7 minicomputer to create the first model, in efforts to try and make a time-sharing computer system. [Link text] (www.britannica.com/technology/UNIX.)
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Fourth Edition was created
This was when the system was rewritten in C, which allowed for the it to become portable. This was a major advancement because it made OS history. [Link text] (unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html.) -
The "Pipe" is introduced
This was a way for information to be shared between two programs, and helped for UNIX to be switched from assembler into C. [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
UNIX was introduced to the public
UNIX was introduced to the public in the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, which produced the first big demand for UNIX. [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
Sixth Edition was created
This was known as one of the most influential versions of UNIX. It was the first version that was released and left Bell Labs. [Link text] (gunkies.org/wiki/UNIX_Sixth_Edition#:~:text=It%20was%20very%20similar%20to,and%20the%20resultant%20UNIBUS%20map.) -
UNIX gets its first serious rival
Bill Joy releases the first Berkeley Software Distribution, which is essentially UNIX V6 with extra things added. This becomes the first system to rival the AT&T UNIX branch. [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
Seventh Edition was created
This was the biggest advancement in the UNIX system to date. "It had C, UUCP and the Bourne shell. It was ported to the VAX and the kernel was more than 40 Kilobytes (K)." [Link text] (unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html.) -
UNIX wins an award
The two creators of UNIX, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were awarded the Turing Award from ACM "for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system." [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
System V Interface Definition published
AT&T published SVID to try and set a standard for the way UNIX works [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
AT&T Bell Labs and Sun Microsystems come together
AT&T Bell Labs and Sun Microsystems come together to create a new system that could be used to unify two major UNIX branches, then Andrew Tanenbaum wrote Minix, which was a clone of UNIX used in computer science classrooms. [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
UNIX Wars begin
Due to the AT&T/ Sun partnership, rivals of UNIX formed the Open Source Foundation to create new open standards. AT&T then forms its own standards group known as UNIX International. [Link text] (www.computerworld.com/article/2524555/operating-systems-timeline-40-years-of-unix.html.) -
Solaris is announced
Sun Microsystems announced Solaris, which was another OS. It was inspired by SVR4, as well as Linux Torvalds writing Linux, which was an OS inspired by Minix. Link text -
UNIX rights sold
"AT&T sells its subsidiary Unix System Laboratories and all Unix rights to Novell. Later that year Novell transfers the Unix trademark to the X/Open group." Link text -
Version 3 of Single UNIX Specification released
Formerly known as Spec 1170, the newest version of the Single UNIX Specification was released. -
UNIX becomes available on the desktop
50 million desktops are shown to have certified UNIX systems, and the numbers continue to grow. Link text