Unix timeline (taken from http://www.unix-systems.org/what_is_..._timeline.html )


1969
The Beginning
The history of UNIX starts back in 1969, when Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and others started working on the "little-used PDP-7 in a corner" at Bell Labs and what was to become UNIX.

1971
First Edition
It had a assembler for a PDP-11/20, file system, fork(), roff and ed. It was used for text processing of patent documents.

1973
Fourth Edition
It was rewritten in C. This made it portable and changed the history of OS's.

1975
Sixth Edition
UNIX leaves home. Also widely known as Version 6, this is the first to be widely available out side of Bell Labs. The first BSD version (1.x) was derived from V6.

1979
Seventh Edition
It was a "improvement over all preceding and following Unices" [Bourne]. It had C, UUCP and the Bourne shell. It was ported to the VAX and the kernel was more than 40 Kilobytes (K).

1980
Xenix
Microsoft introduces Xenix. 32V and 4BSD introduced.

1982
System III
AT&T's UNIX System Group (USG) release System III, the first public release outside Bell Laboratories.

1983
System V
Computer Research Group (CRG), UNIX System Group (USG) and a third group merge to become UNIX System Development Lab. AT&T announces UNIX System V, the first supported release.

1984
4.2BSD
University of California at Berkeley releases 4.2BSD, includes TCP/IP, new signals and much more.

1984
SVR2
System V Release 2 introduced. At this time there are 100,000 UNIX installations around the world.

1986
4.3BSD
4.3BSD released, including internet name server

1987
SVR3
System V Release 3 including STREAMS, TLI, RFS. At this time there are 750,000 UNIX installations around the world.

1988

POSIX.1 published. Open Software Foundation (OSF) and UNIX International (UI) formed.

1989

AT&T UNIX Software Operation formed in preparation for spinoff of USL.

1989
SVR4
UNIX System V Release 4 ships, unifying System V, BSD and Xenix

1990
XPG3
X/Open launches XPG3 Brand

1991

UNIX System Laboratories (USL) becomes a company - majority-owned by AT&T. Linus Torvalds commences Linux development

1992
SVR4.2
USL releases UNIX System V Release 4.2 (Destiny). October - XPG4 Brand launched by X/Open. December 22nd Novell announces intent to acquire USL.

1993
4.4BSD
4.4BSD the final release from Berkeley. June 16 Novell acquires USL

Late 1993
SVR4.2MP
Novell transfers rights to the "UNIX" trademark and the Single UNIX Specification to X/ Open. In December Novell ships SVR4.2MP , the final USL OEM release of System V

1994
4.4-Lite
BSD 4.4-Lite eliminated all code claimed to infringe on USL/Novell

1995
UNIX 95
X/Open introduces the UNIX 95 branding programme. Novell sells UnixWare business to SCO.

1996

The Open Group forms as a merger of OSF and X/Open.

1997
Single UNIX Specification, Version 2
The Open Group introduces Version 2 of the Single UNIX Specification, including support for realtime, threads and 64-bit and larger processors. The specification is made freely available on the web.

1998
UNIX 98
The Open Group introduces the UNIX 98 family of brands, including Base, Workstation and Server. First UNIX 98 registered products shipped by Sun, IBM and NCR. The Open Source movement starts to take off with announcements from Netscape and IBM

1999
UNIX at 30
The UNIX system reaches its 30th anniversary. Linux 2.2 kernel released. The Open Group and the IEEE commence joint development of a revision to POSIX and the Single UNIX Specification. First LinuxWorld conferences. Several Open Source companies launch successfully on the stock markets.

2001
Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification
Version 3 of the Single UNIX Specification unites IEEE POSIX, The Open Group and the industry efforts. Linux 2.4 kernel released. IT stocks face a hard time at the markets.