|
|
ITS: /I·T·S/, n. 1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential though highly
idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-6s and PDP-10s 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). There is an ITS home page. 2. A mythical image of operating-system perfection worshiped by a
bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and ex-users (see
troglodyte, sense 2). ITS worshipers manage somehow
to continue believing that an OS maintained by assembly-language
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.
|
|
