The following timeline summarizes the development of UNIX from its beginning to 2006. For an incredibly detailed timeline of releases of different UNIX variants, go to http://www.levenez.com/unix/.
Year | UNIX Variant or Standard | Comments |
---|---|---|
1969 | UNICS (later called UNIX) | A new operating system invented by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie for the PDP-7 |
1973 | Fourth Edition | Written in C programming language; widely used inside Bell Laboratories |
1975 | Sixth Edition | First version widely available outside of Bell Labs; more than 600 machines ran it |
1978 | 3BSD | Virtual memory |
1979 | Seventh Edition | Included the Bourne shell, UUCP, and C; the direct ancestor or modern UNIX |
1980 | Xenix | Introduced by Microsoft |
1980 | 4BSD | Introduced by UC Berkeley |
1982 | System III | First public release outside of Bell Labs |
1983 | System V Release 1 | First supported release |
1983 | 4.1BSD | UC Berkeley release with performance enhancements |
1984 | 4.2BSD | UC Berkeley release with many networking capabilities |
1984 | System V Release 2 | Protection and locking of files, enhanced system administration, and job control features added |
1986 | HP-UX | First version of HP-UX released for HP Precision Architecture |
1986 | AIX Version 1 | First version of IBM’s proprietary version of UNIX, based on SVR3 |
1987 | System V Release 3 | STREAMS, RFS, TLI added |
1987 | 4.3BSD | Minor enhancements to 4.2BSD |
1988 | POSIX | POSIX.1 published |
1989 | System V Release 4 | Unified System V, BSD, and Xenix |
1990 | XPG3 | X/Open specification set |
1990 | OSF/1 | Open Software Foundation release designed to compete with SVR4 |
1991 | 386BSD | Based on BSD for Intel 80386 |
1991 | Linux 0.01 | Linus Torvalds started development of Linux |
1992 | SVR4.2 | USL-developed version of SVR4 for the desktop |
1992 | HP-UX 9.0 | Supported workstations, including a GUI |
1993 | Solaris 2.3 | POSIX compliant |
1993 | 4.4BSD | Final Berkeley release |
1993 | FreeBSD 1.0 | Initial release based on 4.3BSD and 386BSD |
1993 | SVR4.2MP | Last version of UNIX developed by USL |
1994 | Linux 1.0 | First version of Linux not considered a “beta” |
1994 | NetBSD 1.0 | First multiplatform release |
1994 | Solaris 2.4 | Motif supported |
1994 | AIX4 | Introduced CDE support |
1994 | FreeBSD 2.0 | Based on 4.4BSD-Lite to allow free distribution |
1995 | UNIX 95 | X/Open mark for systems registered under the Single UNIX Specification |
1995 | Solaris 2.5 | CDE supported |
1995 | HP-UX 10.0 | Conformed to the Single UNIX Specification and the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) |
1996 | Linux 2.0 | Performance improvements and networking software added |
1996 | OpenBSD 1.2 | Initial release with strong support of security |
1997 | Solaris 2.6 | UNIX 95 compliant, JAVA supported |
1997 | Single UNIX Specification, Version 2 | Open Group specification set |
1997 | System V Release 5 | Enhanced SV kernel, including 64-bit support, increased reliability, and performance enhancements |
1997 | UnixWare 7 | SCO UNIX based on SVR5 kernel |
1997 | HP-UX 11.0 | 64-bit operating system |
1997 | AIX 4.3 | Support for 64-bit architectures, registered with UNIX 98 mark |
1998 | UNIX 98 | Open Group mark for systems registered under the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2 |
1998 | FreeBSD 3.0 | Kernel changes and security fixes |
1998 | Solaris 7 | Support for 64-bit applications, free for noncommercial users |
1999 | Linux 2.2 | Device drivers added |
1999 | Darwin | Apple developed UNIX-like OS, basis for Mac OS X |
2000 | Solaris 8 | Performance and application support enhancements |
2000 | HP-UX 11i | Introduces operating environments |
2000 | FreeBSD 4.0 | Networking and security enhancements |
2001 | Linux 2.4 | Enhanced device support, scalability enhancements |
2001 | AIX 5L | Introduced affinity for Linux |
2001 | Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah” | First Mac OS release based on Darwin. Incomplete and slow, but with basic OS features, device support, and software development environment |
2001 | Mac OS X 10.1 “Puma” | More complete than Cheetah, with performance enhancements and support for additional device drivers |
2002 | Solaris 9 | Manageability, security, and performance enhancements |
2002 | Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” | First solid release of Mac OS X |
2003 | Linux 2.6 | Scalability for operation on embedded systems to large servers, human interface, networking, and security enhancements |
2003 | Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” | Performance enhancements, an extensive update to the user interface, and greater interoperability with MS Windows |
2003 | Single UNIX Specification, Version 3 | Developed by the Austin Group |
2003 | FreeBSD 5.0 | Improved SMP support, TrustedBSD security features |
2004 | Solaris 10 | Advanced security, performance, and availability enhancements |
2004 | NetBSD 2.0 | Support for SMP |
2005 | OpenServer 6 | Improved SMP support and support for extremely large files |
2005 | Mac X 10.4 “Tiger” | New features include Spotlight, a fast content and metadata-based file search tool, and support for 64-bit platforms and Intel x86 platforms |
2005 | Net BSD 3.0 | Suppose Xen Virtual Machine Monitor |