23 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
23 lines
3.2 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>GCOS</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../G.html" title="G"/><link rel="previous" href="GC.html" title="GC"/><link rel="next" href="GECOS.html" title="GECOS"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">GCOS</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="GC.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">G</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="GECOS.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="GCOS"/><dt xmlns="" id="GCOS"><b>GCOS</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/jee´kohs/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A <a href="../Q/quick-and-dirty.html"><i class="glossterm">quick-and-dirty</i></a>
|
||
<a href="../C/clone.html"><i class="glossterm">clone</i></a> of System/360 DOS that emerged from GE around
|
||
1970; originally called GECOS (the General Electric Comprehensive Operating
|
||
System). Later kluged to support primitive timesharing and transaction
|
||
processing. After the buyout of GE's computer division by Honeywell, the
|
||
name was changed to General Comprehensive Operating System (GCOS). Other
|
||
OS groups at Honeywell began referring to it as ‘God's Chosen
|
||
Operating System’, allegedly in reaction to the GCOS crowd's
|
||
uninformed and snotty attitude about the superiority of their product. All
|
||
this might be of zero interest, except for two facts: (1) The GCOS people
|
||
won the political war, and this led in the orphaning and eventual death of
|
||
Honeywell <a href="../M/Multics.html"><i class="glossterm">Multics</i></a>, and (2) GECOS/GCOS left one
|
||
permanent mark on Unix. Some early Unix systems at Bell Labs used GCOS
|
||
machines for print spooling and various other services; the field added to
|
||
<tt class="filename">/etc/passwd</tt> to carry GCOS ID information was called
|
||
the <span class="firstterm">GECOS field</span> and survives today as
|
||
the <b class="command">pw_gecos</b> member used for the user's
|
||
full name and other human-ID information. GCOS later played a major role
|
||
in keeping Honeywell a dismal also-ran in the mainframe market, and was
|
||
itself mostly ditched for Unix in the late 1980s when Honeywell began to
|
||
retire its aging <a href="../B/big-iron.html"><i class="glossterm">big iron</i></a> designs.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="GC.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../G.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="GECOS.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">GC </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> GECOS</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|