While cleaning a storage room, our staff found this tape containing #UNIX v4 from Bell Labs, circa 1973
Apparently no other complete copies are known to exist: gunkies.org/wiki/UNIX_Fourth_E…
We have arranged to deliver it to the Computer History Museum
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SomeGadgetGuy
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Hooft
in reply to SomeGadgetGuy • • •Heretical_i
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to Heretical_i • • •bitsavers.org (@bitsavers@oldbytes.space)
OldBytes Space - MastodonHeretical_i
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Jason Bowen 🇺🇦
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •@heretical_i
Hehe, I was going to ask if you'd let the TUHS folks know, but was thrilled to see @robpike was on it.
TUHS mailing list thread about it: tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2025-N…
Can't wait, @bitsavers!
#unix
[TUHS] unix v4 tape found
www.tuhs.orgRob Ricci
in reply to Jason Bowen 🇺🇦 • • •@jbowen @heretical_i @robpike @bitsavers
Fun fact, some of the students in our department saw Rob's post there, posted about it on a Slack I'm on - without realizing that it was us that found it until I replied to them. Two minutes later there were in my office to have a look at it.
News spreads fast in 2025.
Heretical_i
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Chris Hanson
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Sensitive content
Heretical_i
in reply to Chris Hanson • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Ethan Blanton
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unix V4 tape found at The University of Utah
Retro ComputingUnus Nemo likes this.
SpaceLifeForm
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •gavinisdie
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Anthony David
in reply to gavinisdie • • •That was the fate of some Apollo mission tapes.
Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •We have some more information on this! One of @regehr's grad students
did some excellent sleuthing and figured out that this was received by Martin Newell : archive.org/details/unix_news_…If that name sounds familiar to you, it's probably because his teapot is ubiquitous in computer graphics: graphics.cs.utah.edu/teapot/
cv.thalia.dev/UNIX News July 30 1975 : USENIX Association : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Internet ArchiveTerra Field reshared this.
Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Great talk on how recovering an old tape like this is done:
youtube.com/watch?v=7YoolSAHR5…
Virtual Vintage Computer West 2020
YouTubeTerra Field reshared this.
Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Thalia Archibald has been transcribing old issues of #UNIX News from @internetarchive and John Gilmore's scans, and has the text up on github:
github.com/thaliaarchi/unix-ne…
#retrocomputing
GitHub - thaliaarchi/unix-news: Transcriptions of UNIX News, the first UNIX newsletter, from 1975 to 1977
GitHubRob Ricci
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George Liquor, American, Unus Nemo, Melancholic Mediocrity, diana 🏳️⚧️🦋🌱, Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™, Charlie Stross, nivs, Gateway of Last Resort, Cassandrich and G. Gibson reshared this.
Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unus Nemo likes this.
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Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unus Nemo likes this.
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Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unus Nemo likes this.
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Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Here's the document release you were waiting for today!
The UNIX V4 tape!
archive.org/details/utah_unix_…
Credits:
* Jay Lepreau for holding on to this tape
* Aleksander Maricq for finding it
* Jon Duerig for driving it to the Computer History Museum
* Thalia Archibald for doing a huge amount of research into the tape, its history, and file formats, and the upload
* Al Kossow for the tape-reading equipment and doing the actual read
* Len Shustek for the lab where the read was done and the software used to decode it
#retrocomputing
UNIX V4 tape from University of Utah (raw) : Computer History Museum : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
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G. Gibson, George Liquor, American, Jan Wildeboer 😷, Cassandrich, Les Orchard, Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 👽, Patch Arcana, Jeff Forcier, Mre. Dartigen [maker mode], Ela, Sandzwerg, mhoye and Melissa BearTrix reshared this.
G. Gibson
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •UNIX - v4
squoze.netǝʌɐp
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Thread about the .tap format for those who want to dig in more:
github.com/larsbrinkhoff/emacs…
Repair Gosling emacs.tap from Universität Stuttgart by thaliaarchi · Pull Request #17 · larsbrinkhoff/emacs-history
GitHubMichael Katzmann🐈
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •It's been booted!
squoze.net/UNIX/v4/
UNIX - v4
squoze.netRob Ricci
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •mhoye reshared this.
mcc
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Rob Ricci
in reply to mcc • • •mcc
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Dave Rahardja 🎄
in reply to mcc • • •diana 🏳️⚧️🦋🌱
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •G. Gibson
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unus Nemo
in reply to Rob Ricci • •@Rob Ricci
This is so cool. I hope you all enjoy this moment as much as I would.
yetzt
in reply to Rob Ricci • • •Unus Nemo likes this.