Multics

Multics
Character Information
Common Names	Multics
Other Names	Multiplexed Information and Computing Service
Human Name(s)	Minerva Corbato
Faction	MIT Society
Lineage	MIT-tan via CTSS
Rival(s)	GECOS, TSS/360
Appearance
Height	170 cm (5'7")
Hair Color	dark red-purple
Eye Color	Blue or gold
Weapon(s)	Labyrinth; various psionic forcefields
Design
First Appearance	Oct-Nov 2007
Technical Information
System Personified	Multics
Developer(s)	MIT, Bell Labs, GE, Honeywell
Debut	Development started in 1964; first commercial release in 1969
Latest release	Circa 1985

Technical details

Multics is an ambitious OS developed jointly by Bell Labs (dropped out of the project in 1969), General Electric (later Honeywell) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and funded largely by DARPA. The goal of this collaboration, dubbed Project MAC, was to create an operating system that worked as a water or electric utility does; running on a central mainframe which thousands of users would have access to. Because of this, stability and security were of the utmost importance.

Built on and hosted by machines running CTSS, development of Multics began in 1964; but a fully working system was not released until 1969. Multics was plagued by complexity from the start, and at many points became almost too expensive and difficult to continue development. While largely a commercial disappointment, Multics implemented many novel ideas which went on to influence the other OSes of its time, most notably Unix. Many of Multics' features can be found in popular operating systems today. In November of 2007, Multics' source code was made open by Groupe Bull; while machines capable of running Multics are long gone, a project to build a Honeywell 6180 (DPS-8) emulator is underway.

Character details

Multics-tan is depicted as a mature woman of average/tall height, with bright blue eyes, long dark purple hair and black and grey mottled wings. Featuring a mix of Victorian, Baroque French and ancient Roman and Indian design cues, Multics wears grandiloquent Rococo-style gowns and copious amounts of jewelry. A recurring theme in her design is rings, layers and labyrinths, a reference to the ringed security features Multics popularized as well as her unfathomable nature. Multics also sports a red circular maze tattoo on her V of her chest.

Multics' attitude is complex and often times contrary; fabulously social, she had a great capacity for love and kindness as well as ruthless contempt – and everything in between. She looks and behaves femininely but it anything but delicate – her psionic powers are among the strongest of any OS-tan.

Alternate color map

There is an alternate color scheme for Multics based on her widely-accepted animal anthropomorphism, the bald eagle. This color scheme (depicted in the Infobox image) calls for gold eyes, brownish-purple hair and dark brown wings.

History and background

The adoptive daughter of CTSS, Multics was born 1964. Rigorous academic and psionic training, coupled with the pressure of her creators' ambitions put a strain on her already weak system; she constantly fought off psychological and physical breakdowns and had a veritable 'round-the-clock-staff to ensure her health – including CTSS and GECOS. In 1968 she was nearly abandoned and allowed to die by her caretakers; however the petition of one man was able to convince them to not give up on her. This was the first of many near-death experiences. In the spring of 1969 the Bell Labs delegate abandoned her, opting, instead, to create their own OS-tan from her genes – the origins of Unix.

By the fall of 1969 Multics debuted healthy and mature; her success gained her a dedicated following, but also made enemies. GECOS, once merely disdainful of Multics, began to see her as a potential threat to her livelihood if not her life. GECOS mentored young Unix and conditioned her to fear Multics, believing her the only person strong enough to defeat Multics. This plan worked, and Multics faced continual failed attacks by Unix. While she easily had the power to defeat Unix, Multics chose not to, perhaps out of sympathy for her daughter – and the realization that she could be her only heir. In 1972 their conflict came to a head; Multics attempted to kill Unix, who, after regaining her consciousness returned the favour. Unix was able to absorb a great deal of psionic energy from Multics and use it break through her defensive forcefields; in a rage she badly injured Multics, including breaking one of her wings (an injury that never healed properly, leaving it deformed to his day).

Being stripped of part of her power made Multics a great deal psychologically stronger (while it had an opposite “corrupting” influence on Unix); to make up for the loss, she underwent defensive training by the military and was partnered with Honeywell 6180-kun. The 1970s and 80s were the prime of Multics' life; she secured territories around the world and became a true global traveler, although MIT remained her home.

In 1988 she was banished from MIT and her homeland of Cambridge; this was the beginning of the end, as she was deposed from more and more of her territories during the 1990s. By 2000 she was exiled to her last stronghold in Halifax, Nova Scotia; she died there in October of that year, shortly after reconciling with her estranged daughter.

In 2007 she was raised from the dead by her former followers, the Multicians; she currently lives at the Bintenji Renmei, psychically-powerless but in the company of other vintage and historic OS and Computer-tans.

Family and Relationships

Multics family includes CTSS and Whirlwind, her adoptive mother and grandmother respectively; Unix, her daughter, and the Unix-tans, her grandchildren; and a generation of Multics-likes and other OS-tans whom she tutored, including VOS, PRIMOS, Tenex and OpenVMS. Her main competitors were GECOS and TSS/360. Her stepsister is BESYS, who briefly tutored Multics in her first year or two, but neither of them liked the arrangement. After it ended, Multics went back to being under CTSS' tutelage.

Fanworks

Early drawings

• The first Multics-tan sketch
• "Young Multics-tan"
• "Multics v. Unix"
• First finished image of Multics-tan
• "O Fortuna" - Multics-tan portrait
• Multics and Unix portrait

Contemporary drawings

• "Autumn", Multics and Emacs portrait
• "Rococo Multics" - featuring an alternative color map
• Comparison of classic and alternate color maps
• Multics-tan/Panty and Stocking parody
• "Happily Ever After"
• "Antithesis"