On Mon, 2012-07-02 at 15:48 +0200, Tilman Schmidt wrote:
Am 01.07.2012 07:40, schrieb Les Mikesell: [distinction between /bin and /usr/bin]
The concept really comes from the original unix, which back in the day, often had really tiny boot disks and might mount everything else over the network or use different drive types to hold the larger /usr space.
The separation predates Unix networking. IIRC /usr/bin was already there on Unix Version 7 on the PDP-11, before Ethernet was even invented.
You are correct. I used to create and mail the tapes out with the software releases to the government and colleges. Ran V6/V7 on Dec PDP-11, early PC-compatible stuff (maybe System II used? Can't recall for sure), 5B5/3B20 (AT&T designed hardware used when System III & V came available, IIRC) ... when a big HD was 10MB (or even 5MB) and memory was 64K and processors where 8086, 80186, 80286, ...
Everything was small, highly unreliable compared to today. HDs were sliced up to try and ensure minimal damage when the inevitable crash occurred. Backup process recommended was "Tower of Hanoi" strategy on tape (which were also limited in size). A thing called "speed" was non-existent compared to today. So another reason for slicing was to reduce fsck times.
The internet was not yet invented, but uucp and related provided "networking" capability.
I gave a one day class to some *very* smart folks at DARPA and you know what happened next - "internet".
Bill