F/OSS Comics F/OSS Comics is a comic series about free and open source software. Through stories from the history of computing and software, we hope to help readers understand F/OSS and get involved. https://fosscomics.com/ 2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur https://fosscomics.com/8.%20UNIX%20and%20C%20Language/images/feature.png Fossbook 13. BSD Unix, Part 3 - The Beginning of BSD Unix https://fosscomics.com/posts/13.%20BSD%20Unix%20Part%203%20-%20The%20Beginning%20of%20BSD%20Unix/ 2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z 2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur From Pascal and ex tapes to a VAX system: Bill Joy handles BSD distribution and debugging, then joins Ozalp Babaoglu to bring virtual memory to Unix. 12. BSD Unix, Part 2 - The Birth of the vi Editor https://fosscomics.com/posts/12.%20BSD%20Unix%20Part%202%20-%20The%20Birth%20of%20the%20vi%20Editor/ 2026-10-11T00:00:00.000Z 2026-10-11T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur At UC Berkeley, Bill Joy and Chuck Haley help Ken Thompson improve Pascal, then turn their attention to editing. The path from ed through em and ex leads to vi. 11. BSD Unix, Part 1 - Unix Code Goes to UC Berkeley https://fosscomics.com/posts/11.%20BSD%20Unix%20Part%201%20-%20Unix%20Code%20Goes%20to%20UC%20Berkeley/ 2026-09-30T00:00:00.000Z 2026-09-30T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur How did Unix spread from Bell Labs to universities and companies? One clue lies in Ken Thompson's visit to UC Berkeley, with Unix source code in hand. 10. The Life of Dennis Ritchie https://fosscomics.com/posts/10.%20The%20Life%20of%20Dennis%20Ritchie/ 2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z 2026-09-26T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur From Harvard to Bell Labs: the life of Dennis Ritchie, creator of C and co-developer of Unix, and his later work on Plan 9 and Inferno. 9. The Unix Philosophy https://fosscomics.com/posts/9.%20The%20Unix%20Philosophy/ 2026-08-22T00:00:00.000Z 2026-08-22T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur More than five decades after Unix was created, its philosophy and code live on in Linux, macOS, and other operating systems. Its lasting influence comes from a simple approach to software—build small programs that do one thing well, work together, and communicate through text streams. 8. The Origins of Unix and the C Language https://fosscomics.com/posts/8.%20The%20Origins%20of%20Unix%20and%20the%20C%20Language/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur How did Unix begin? Why was C created, and why was Unix rewritten in C? This is the story of the people who created Unix and C. 7. MIT Hacker Culture and ITS https://fosscomics.com/posts/7.%20ITS%20and%20Hacker%20Culture/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur The hacker culture at MIT had roots in the Tech Model Railroad Club, whose members later programmed computers including the PDP-1. This experimentation fostered the hacker ethos, leading to the development of one of the earliest and most influential computer games, Spacewar!, and the ITS. The open, collaborative nature of ITS at the MIT AI Lab, accessible through ARPAnet, significantly influenced hacker culture and laid the groundwork for the free/open-source software movement... 6. The Origin of the Hacker Culture https://fosscomics.com/posts/6.%20The%20Origin%20of%20the%20Hacker%20Culture/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur The origins of hacker culture reach back to early programming communities and MIT's PDP-1 enthusiasts, who created software such as Spacewar!, text editors, and music programs. Project MAC, the AI Lab, ITS, and ARPANET helped this culture spread and influence today's open-source hacker community. 5. The Beginning of Software Engineering https://fosscomics.com/posts/5.%20The%20Beginning%20of%20Software%20Engineering/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur Early programmers came from mathematics, science, and engineering. Margaret Hamilton and other women helped establish software as a demanding engineering discipline. 4. How Did People Write Code in the Early Days of Computing? https://fosscomics.com/posts/4.%20How%20Did%20People%20Write%20Code%20in%20the%20Early%20Days%20of%20Computing/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur Early programmers moved from rewiring machines to stored programs, assembly language, paper tape, and punched-card batch processing. 3. The Era of Commercial Computers https://fosscomics.com/posts/3.%20The%20Era%20of%20Commercial%20Computers/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur In 1946, ENIAC and EDVAC engineers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly founded a company that became the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and developed UNIVAC I. During the 1950s, IBM introduced computers including the 701, 704, and mass-produced 650, while Fortran and Lisp helped expand the possibilities of programming. This marked the beginning of widespread commercial computing. 2. Alan Turing and Von Neumann https://fosscomics.com/posts/2.%20Alan%20Turing%20and%20Von%20Neumann/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur Alan Turing described an abstract machine that clarified what computation could mean. From wartime codebreaking and ENIAC's plugboards to the stored-program designs of EDVAC, ACE, and EDSAC, this episode traces how Turing, John von Neumann, and several engineering teams contributed to the architecture of modern computers. 1. Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace https://fosscomics.com/posts/1.%20Charles%20Babbage%20and%20Ada%20Lovelace/ 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z 2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z Joone Hur In the 19th century, Charles Babbage designed pioneering mechanical computers, and Ada Lovelace's notes on the Analytical Engine included an early published computer program and described how a machine could repeat a sequence of operations.