1970s: Minicomputers and Microcomputers
There are only two things to come out of Berkeley,
Unix and LSD, and I don't think this is a coincidence.
Jeremy S. Anderson.
Another major development occurring in parallel was the phenomenal
growth in minicomputers, starting with the DEC (Digital Equipment
Corporation) PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor) in 1961. The PDP-1, with
4K of 18-bit words cost only US$120,000 - 5% of the IBM 7094.
The trend was towards many small mid-range personal computers, rather
than a single mainframe.
Early minicomputers and microcomputers were simple in their hardware
architectures, and so there was some regression to earlier operating
system ideas (single user, no pre-emption, no multiprogramming).
For example, MS-DOS on an IBM-PC (circa. 1975) was essentially
introduced as a batch system, similar to those of the 1960s, with a few
modern additions,
such as a hierarchical file system.
With some notable exceptions, the trend quickly moved towards support
of all modern operating system facilities on microcomputers.
There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
Ken Olsen, DEC Founder and Chairman, 1977.
Perhaps most significant has been the evolution, and importance, of
operating systems' user interfaces.
In particular, the graphical desktop metaphor
has remained for some time.
CITS2002 Systems Programming, Lecture 3, p14, 29th July 2024.
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CITS2002