this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Yes, I actually did not know how far back, thanks. Wikipedia seems to say 1979. I know my system admin book dated 1992 talks about it and it was common then. I think my brother use to use it in the early 1980s for his job and maybe I did too a few times. Wikipedia says GNU Tar is newer and traces back to 1987. The formats have changed some and there are several. The PAX format is much newer which I think was standardized in 2001 but GNU Tar would have taken time to implement it. I do not know that date.
People seem to forget that tar worked well back then and still does.
I had the chance to play with late 70s Unix for a bit a few years ago. (Hardware on loan from a museum.) VERY minimal, but still recognizable. (Well, my Unix reflexes are old - I started in the mid 80s.)
Interesting. About then I was using a VAX. Somehow I spend most of my time on other stuff until I switched to Linux around 2000.
My first Unix was 4.3BSD on a VAX-11/750. (There was another 11/750 running VMS, but I didn't like that nearly as much.)
Yes VMS. That was what I was using. Unix. I did use it for something a few times. The university had one of those mini-supper computers that were a thing for awhile.
Oooh - what mini super? Something weird, or just a small vector machine? That was an interesting niche...
Actually fun reminiscing a little. Have not thought about this stuff in decades. One thing I always though was kind of fun. When I started collage terminals were just coming in for students and there was not enough of them. Huge lines. Me I would go over to the row of empty card punches and punch up a deck for my assignment, walk over the the window and give it to the operator and have it read. Then I would get in line for a terminal which by then was often shorter, login, do any editing and debugging, and run and print my assignment in like 30 minutes. Not sure why others did not do this. Just seemed like the way to go.