[ Thanks to Fred for this
link. ]
“Work on Unix began at Bell Labs after AT&T, (which
owned the lab), MIT and GE pulled the plug on an ambitious project
to create an operating system called Multics.“The idea was to make better use of the resources of mainframe
computers and have them serve many people at the same time.“”With Multics they tried to have a much more versatile and
flexible operating system, and it failed miserably,” said Dr Peter
Salus, author of the definitive history of Unix’s early years.”