Richard Owlett writes: > Unix was a response to the needs of a large data center with possibly > thousands of users.
No it wasn't. Unix was a response to Multics, which *was* aimed at systems with thousands of users. If you want to see a truly complex system of permissions and access controls look at Multics. It was aimed at universities and similar institutions that wanted to serve large numbers of users on interactive terminals. It competed with the likes of MTS and Plato and was going to solve all security problems (such as they were at the time). Data centers were something else again and used IBM hardware and software. They were mostly batch: IBM's multiuser software was atrocious but it's job control, scheduling, and accounting stuff was to marvel at. Unix was aimed at small multiuser interactive systems running on minicomputers. The VAX 11/780 soon became the standard Unix box. -- John Hasler jhas...@newsguy.com Elmwood, WI USA
