University of Utah researchers recover long-lost Unix tape from 1973
Researchers at the University of Utah have reportedly recovered a version of the Unix operating system from 1973 erstwhile considered lost to time.
A local NBC affiliate reported that Aleks Maricq, research associate in the Flux Research Group, discovered the software while cleaning a storage room. He told the outlet that outside of Bell Labs, where Unix’s development began in the 1960s, only a handful of copies of the operating system’s original version had been distributed.
The affiliate reported that it was Unix v4 that was unearthed, though those who found the tape containing the operating system reportedly have not tested whether it still contains data, because they didn’t have the equipment needed to read it.
Research associate Jon Duerig said the group plans to drive the tape to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, with the hopes of recovering the tape’s data and viewing the comments alongside the operating system’s source code.
“It’s really valuable to be able to look back at where we came from and how things have ended up the way that they are, as a way of also thinking about the moment that we’re in and how we want to evolve our computing for the future,” Rob Ricci, a computing professor at the university, told KSLTV.
