48-Year-Old Multics operating system resurrected

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/07/09/0414245/48-year-old-multics-operating-system-resurrected

by MilnerRoute • 9 years ago

37 9 9 years ago

tech.slashdot.org

Having been compelled to program Multics, I am appalled that anyone would want to resurrect it. One of the happiest days of my life was when my employer got rid of it. I think they gave it to Iran. : )

jwfxpr• 9 years ago

Is Multics like The Ring? You have to give it to someone else to free yourself of the curse?

verri• 9 years ago

Could you tell use something more about its flaws compared to other operating systems of the era?

oldmancoyote2• 9 years ago

Sure. While Multics was a wonderful operating system for folks who were into systems programming and similar activities, for those of us who were trying to write applications it was a nightmare. It was wonderfully flexible, but nearly impossible to understand from the application programmer's perspective. In reading the doc you'd find something you didn't understand so you'd followed the reference to the next piece of doc, and then on to the next and so on. After about 4 levels of this I'd have a headache and give up.

For all it's problems the IBM 360 was much more accessible. Initially, the doc was of little use, but by this time, IBM has its act together and there were some truly useful docs.

Multics, for all its brilliance, was nearly useless for many.

DrScump• 9 years ago

Some may not be aware that UNIX was named as a sort of take-off on Multics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix

Animats• 9 years ago

Aw. Finally. I wonder if some of the Multics fans I once knew are still alive to see this.

Theodores• 9 years ago

24 year old website resurrected - not seen a link to Slashdot in a long time.

brudgers• 9 years ago

Direct link to the Multicians website, http://multicians.org/ and Multics source code http://web.mit.edu/multics-history/

agumonkey• 9 years ago

Just when the Xerox restoration is done, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI&index=17&list=PL...

48-Year-Old Multics operating system resurrected

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