This year (and some say this month specifically?), the Unix operating system celebrates its 40th birthday. Here are some links:

• The Open Group’s Unix History and Timeline
• A recent BBC article

This blog entry is also categorised under and tagged as ‘philosophy’ because Unix does have an elegant philosophy underlying it :-). Probably the best I’ve read on the “Unix Way” is, The Art of Unix Programming1, by Eric S. Raymond (esr)2

1 Available for free from that page, find the link. I could have provided a direct link but that page is a better start, and acknowledges the author more clearly in my view.

2 Of The Cathedral and the Bazaar fame, an authoritative piece on open source dynamics, why it works, etc.