If you're reading this and are really interested in early UNIX systems, you have probably read some of the early UNIX books and papers. Things like Don Libes' "Life With UNIX", or Peter Salus' "A Quarter Century of UNIX". These are all great books, and if you haven't read them, many can be had for a song on eBay or as used books on Amazon. Basically these are so cheap that you end up paying only shipping. Great deals.
Here are the sources I have and use:
- Books
- UNIX System Readings and Applications (Volumes I and II). These are two of the best references on early UNIX and UNIX background available. Although I think they are out of print, they are often available used from Amazon or on eBay.
- The UNIX Programming Environment, by Kernighan and Pike
- Software Tools, by Kernighan and Plauger
- The Practice of Programming, by Kernighan and Pike
- The Elements of Programming Style, by Kernighan and Plauger
- The C Programming Language, by Kernighan and Ritchie
- The UNIX Programmer's Manual, Seventh Edition. This is available in hard copy, used, from Amazon, and often on eBay. It is a great reference on early UNIX. Two volumes, the first being the standard manual pages, and the second, the original UNIX papers from the earliest UNIX systems. I should note that the original n/troff source is also available with the Seventh Edition source code. Check around the net. The newer nroff/ms systems do not like this early code and choke on some of them. If you have a Seventh Edition system running, or even a System V machine, you should be able to do fine and create good text output.
- There are many more older UNIX books available used from Amazon. Check around and you'll find lots of material.
- The original papers published and sometimes distributed with early AT&T and BSD UNIX systems.
- Early USENET posts and FAQs
- Early USENIX and ACM papers
I've been collecting lots of these at wyvern and making them available in /usr/local/doc.
These texts are both fun and instructive to read, and should be preserved.
