UNIX is 50!

 

I don't think that there was anything remotely as influential in my research  experience as the existence of UNIX.  When I arrived at Bell Labs in 1976 UNIX was still in its infancy but already there were rumblings of a new statistics  language called S that would revolutionize my world.  In my last few years at Murray Hill my office was across the hall from Rick Becker's, so I was able learn S from one of its original authors.  When I returned to UIUC in 1983 it was a struggle to maintain my access to S and UNIX.  I recall the director of campus computing services telling me at that time that "UNIX wasn't appropriate  for educational institutions because it was too flexible."  Eventually accounts on various Vaxen were created and life went on with a commercial manifestation of S called Splus.  In 1989 on a yearlong  sabbatical adventure I was even able to maintain my dependence on UNIX with a dubious version by SCO  on a Zenith portable.  Sometime in 1999 I made the transition to R, and have never looked back.  Without UNIX all of this would have been almost unthinkable.