An influential but highly idiosyncratic operating system
written for the PDP-6 and PDP-10 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). The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden is
maintaining one "live" ITS site at its computer museum (right
next to the only TOPS-10 system still on the Internet), so
ITS is still alleged to hold the record for OS in longest
continuous use (however, WAITS is a credible rival for this
palm).
2. A mythical image of operating system perfection worshiped
by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and
ex-users (see troglodyte). 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.
[Jargon File]
(1994-12-15)
Nearby terms:
ITHACA « ITIL « ITP « ITS » it's a feature » ITSP » ITU
