Multics: Difference between revisions

Multics is an ambitious OS developed jointly by Bell Labs, 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.

Multics was plagued by complexity from the start, and at many points became almost too expensive and difficult to continue development. Bell Labs dropped out of the project in 1969, and GE's computer business was bought by Honeywell in 1970. 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.

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 complex, albeit beautiful, 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 unfathomably complex nature. Multics also sports a red circular maze tattoo on her V of her chest.