Unix was a scene.
| Date | Event | Unix scene members | Unix-influenced users |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Thompson joins Bell Labs. Unix doesn't exist yet. | 0 | 0 |
| 1965-1969 | Thompson and Ritchie work on Multics project at Bell Labs (joint project with MIT and GE). | 0 (not Unix yet) | 0 |
| 1969 | Bell Labs withdraws from Multics project. | 0 | 0 |
| 1969 (summer) | Thompson writes Space Travel game on PDP-7, designs simple file system. | ~2 | ~2 |
| 1970 | First running Unix system (Thompson + Ritchie). Name changes from "Unics" to "Unix". | ~3 | ~3 |
| 1971 | First Edition Unix released internally at Bell Labs. Small group using it: Thompson, Ritchie, McIlroy, few others in the research group. | ~12 | ~15 |
| 1972 | Ritchie begins developing C language. Unix group at Bell Labs growing - more researchers adopting it. | ~30 | ~75 |
| 1973 (summer) | Unix rewritten in C (makes it portable). McIlroy suggests pipes, Thompson implements in one night. Philosophy crystallizes. | ~60 | ~150 |
| 1973 | Fourth Edition Unix. Being presented at conferences. Papers published. Philosophy getting articulated. | ~100 | ~300 |
| 1974-1975 | AT&T begins distributing to universities (nearly free, with source code). Berkeley gets it. | ~300 | ~1,500 |
| 1975 | First USENIX conference (40 attendees, 20 institutions). Community infrastructure begins forming. | ~400 | ~2,000 |
| 1978 | First BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) release (30 copies distributed). Growing university adoption. | ~900 | ~4,500 |
| 1979 | Seventh Edition Unix (V7). Widely considered the most important Unix. | ~1,500 | ~7,500 |
| 1980 | Usenet begins. Community infrastructure emerges - people can share code and discussions asynchronously. | ~2,000 | ~12,000 |
| 1983 | TCP/IP added to BSD (4.2BSD). BSD development accelerates. Unix becomes the internet OS. | ~7,500 | ~75,000 |
| 1983 | AT&T System V Release 1. AT&T commercializes Unix. Scene begins fragmenting between commercial Unix and BSD. | ~10,000 | ~150,000 |
| 1984 | 45,000 Unix systems installed, 940 Usenet hosts. Scene thriving but fragmenting. | ~15,000 | ~300,000 |
| 1985 | Microsoft Windows 1.0 released. Not Unix-based (runs on top of DOS). | ~40,000 | ~2M |
| 1985-1988 | PEAK. USENIX conferences draw ~3K attendees. CS degrees peak at 42K/year. Scene at maximum size but losing coherence. | ~40,000 | ~2M |
| 1988 | Unix Wars begin. Rival consortia form (OSF vs Unix International). Scene fragmenting into incompatible camps. | Fragmenting | ~4M |
| 1989 | NeXTSTEP released by Steve Jobs' NeXT Computer. Unix-based (BSD foundation). | ~45,000 (fragmenting) | ~4M |
| 1991 | Linux kernel first released by Linus Torvalds. Unix-like but not Unix. Free and open source. NEW scene begins, separate from Unix. | Unix: ~20,000, Linux/BSD: ~300 | ~15M |
| 1993 | Windows NT released. Not Unix. Begins Microsoft's dominance in corporate computing. Commercial Unix systems (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX) start declining. | Unix: ~15,000, Linux/BSD: ~3,000 | ~30M |
| 1995 | Windows 95 released. Huge commercial success. Not Unix. Unix becomes increasingly niche in desktop/consumer markets. Original Unix scene dissolves - BSD CSRG closes after 20 years. | Unix scene ended, Linux/BSD: ~30,000 | ~40M |
| 1997 | Apple acquires NeXT. NeXTSTEP becomes foundation for future macOS. | Unix: ~7,500, Linux/BSD: ~75,000 | ~65M |
| 2001 | Mac OS X released. Unix-based (BSD + NeXTSTEP). First mainstream consumer Unix. | Unix: ~7,500, Linux/BSD: ~500,000 | ~125M |
| 2007 | iPhone released. Runs iOS, which is based on macOS (thus Unix-based). Unix in billions of pockets, users unaware. | Unix: ~10,000, Linux/BSD: ~2M | ~300M |
| 2008 | Android released. Based on Linux kernel. | Unix: ~10,000, Linux/BSD: ~3M | ~750M |
| 2014-2015 | Unix DNA reaches billions of users via smartphones. Most people use Unix-descended systems daily without knowing. | Unix: ~10,000, Linux/BSD: ~8M | ~2.5B |
| 2025 | Today. Commercial Unix systems (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX) nearly extinct. Replaced by Linux in enterprise, macOS in consumer/creative markets, Windows in corporate. Original Unix scene dissolved - descendants (Linux, macOS) dominate computing but are too large/diffuse to be a "scene". | Unix: ~10,000, Linux/BSD: ~10M | ~6.5B |
The scene dissolved, but The Unix philosophy won — it's everywhere. Most servers run Linux. Macs and iPhones run Unix. Android runs Linux. Windows is the outlier. Today most of humanity uses Unix-descended systems.
2025-11-07