Multics
/muhl'tiks/ n. [from "MULTiplexed Information and
Computing Service"] An early (late 1960s) timesharing operating
system co-designed by a consortium including MIT, GE, and Bell
Laboratories. Very innovative for its time --- among other things,
it introduced the idea of treating all devices uniformly as special
files. All the members but GE eventually pulled out after
determining that
second-system effect had bloated Multics to
the point of practical unusability (the `lean' predecessor in
question was
CTSS). Honeywell commercialized Multics after
buying out GE's computer group, but it was never very successful
(among other things, on some versions one was commonly required to
enter a password to log out). One of the developers left in the
lurch by the project's breakup was Ken Thompson, a circumstance
which led directly to the birth of
{UNIX}. For this and other
reasons, aspects of the Multics design remain a topic of occasional
debate among hackers. See also
brain-damaged and
GCOS.
