ITS

1. Incompatible time-sharing System

An influential but highly idiosyncratic operating system

written for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 at MIT and long used at

the MIT AI Lab. Much AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS

folklore, and to have been "an ITS hacker" qualifies one

instantly as an old-timer of the most venerable sort. ITS

pioneered many important innovations, including transparent

file sharing between machines and terminal-independent I/O.

After about 1982, most actual work was shifted to newer

machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run essentially as a

hobby and service to the hacker community. The shutdown of

the lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end of an

era and sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide (see

high moby). The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden is

maintaining one "live" ITS site at its computer museum (right

next to the only TOPS-10 system still on the Internet), so

ITS is still alleged to hold the record for OS in longest

continuous use (however, WAITS is a credible rival for this

palm).

2. A mythical image of operating system perfection worshiped

by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and

ex-users (see troglodyte). ITS worshipers manage somehow to

continue believing that an OS maintained by assemblylanguage hand-hacking that supported only monocase

6-character filenames in one directory per account remains

superior to today's state of commercial art (their venom

against Unix is particularly intense).

See also holy wars, Weenix.

[Jargon File]

(1994-12-15)