In reviewing my research notes for a SIGGRAPH interview, I'm surprised at how accurately I determined the who and when of the UNIX V4 tape.
Before we had any supporting documents with the tape, I had to look elsewhere. My best source was a list of the first UNIX users outside of Bell Labs, which lists Martin Newell of the University of Utah as #19, but does not have any dates. To estimate when the tape would have been made, I tracked down the other institutions' histories and UNIX license agreements from their archives. This was tedious, but it was the only way I could narrow the timeframe. I determined that UNIX was likely licensed for the U in June 1974.
After determining that, a letter was found among the same papers as the tape, from Ken Thompson to Martin Newell, apologizing for their delay in sending the tape. It was dated 31 May 1974. Then, once we recovered the tape's data, the file system showed the tape was copied on 12 June 1974. Wow.
#unix #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #archives #archivistodon
