2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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ITS
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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/ITS/ , n. 1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential though highly
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idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-6s and PDP-10s at MIT and
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long used at the MIT AI Lab. Much AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS
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folklore, and to have been an ITS hacker qualifies one instantly as an
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old-timer of the most venerable sort. ITS pioneered many important
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innovations, including transparent file sharing between machines and
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terminal-independent I/O. After about 1982, most actual work was shifted to
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newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run essentially as a hobby and
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service to the hacker community. The shutdown of the lab's last ITS machine
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in May 1990 marked the end of an era and sent old-time hackers into mourning
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nationwide (see high moby ). There is an ITS home page. 2. A mythical image
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of operating-system perfection worshiped by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of
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old-time hackers and ex-users (see troglodyte , sense 2). ITS worshipers
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manage somehow to continue believing that an OS maintained by
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assembly-language hand-hacking that supported only monocase 6-character
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filenames in one directory per account remains superior to today's state of
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commercial art (their venom against Unix is particularly intense). See also
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holy wars , Weenix.
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