Unix and Linux would be your quintessential examples.

Unix was an effort to take Multics, an operating system that had gotten too modular, and integrate the good parts into a more unified whole (book recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...).

Even though there were some benefits to the modularity of Multics (apparently you could unload and replace hardware in Multics servers without reboot, which was unheard of at the time), it was also its downfall. Multics was eventually deemed over-engineered and too difficult to work with. It couldn't evolve fast enough with the changing technological landscape. Bell Labs' conclusion after the project was shelved was that OSs were too costly and too difficult to design. They told engineers that no one should work on OSs.

Ken Thompson wanted a modern OS so he disregarded these instructions. He used some of the expertise he gained while working on Multics and wrote Unix for himself (in three weeks, in assembly). People started looking over Thompson's shoulder being like "Hey what OS are you using there, can I get a copy?" and the rest is history.

Brian Kernighan described Unix as "one of" whatever Multics was "multiple of". Linux eventually adopted a similar architecture.

More here: https://benoitessiambre.com/integration.html

UNIX: A History and a Memoir | Brian Kernhigan

For me, this book finally told the human story behind so many CLI commands and ideas I'd been using for decades.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

“UNIX: A History and a Memoir” by Kernighan is a really fun read. Just publushed a few years ago as well.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

> What was the origin of the idea that the Unix philosophy is "do one thing and do it well"?

Relatedly: Brian Kernighan's Unix: A History and a Memoir was an enjoyable read.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d... (not an affiliate link).

"UNIX: A History and a Memoir" by B. Kernighan features both Unix creation and Bell Labs culture of its time.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

I learned from that article that the shell had been around in Multics for 5 years before UNIX inherited the concept! There were no pipes, but it seems like there were command-line arguments even in Louis Pouzin's shell. Does anyone know what it was called? Wikipedia only knows the Thompson shell [0].

"i decided that it was close to a time sharing system, just lacking an exec call, a shell, an editor, and an assembler. (no compilers) the exec call was trivial and the other 3 were done in 1-week each" ... "in mid to late 1969" - Ken Thompson [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_command_shells

[1] Page 34, UNIX: A History and a memoir - Brian Kernighan. https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

For anyone interested in the history of UNIX development, Brian Kernhigan's "UNIX: A History and a Memoir" is a quick and enlightening read. I loved the history, and I came away with a better understanding of today's cli environment as well.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1695978552

This isn't entirely specific to the internet, but rather the development of UNIX. Brian Kernighan's UNIX: A History and a Memoir [0] is great. It covers a bit of the technical underpinnings of UNIX, but also covers the people and personalities behind its development. It helped me better understand many of the tools we still use today.

https://www.amazon.com/Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/1695978552/ref=s...

UNIX: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan is excellent. It traces the history of Unix from the early days at Bell Labs through the period where it reached widespread use in the rest of the world. It's a fascinating history of people building the command line tools that we still use today, and the environment that allows those tools to be combined in powerful ways.

I came away with a much clearer picture of how these systems were developed, and I am a little better on the command line for understanding the original philosophy better as well.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

The recent book by Brian Kernighan, "UNIX: A History and a Memoir" [1], was a fascinating personal memoir about the birth of Unix as well as how things used to work at AT&T Bell Labs.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

Recently someone on HN recommended Unix: A History and a Memoir by Brian Kernighan. I'm almost finished, and it's been a wonderful read.

I love reading about the development of early programming languages and computing environments, but I was surprised to find how helpful it is for deepening my understanding of things I use every day. It's amazing to me that tools like grep, which I use without a second thought, were written in the 1960s and 1970s and the code behind them hasn't been changed all that much.

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/d...

https://www.amazon.ca/UNIX-History-Memoir-Brian-Kernighan/dp...

It's now available. Big thanks to BWK for doing this.

Australia: A$11.99 [my local site] https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07ZQHX3R1/

or US$8.20 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZQHX3R1/

vs printed book US$18 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1695978552

Weird, URL is https://www.amazon.com/dp/1695978552 which loads for me.