Ken Thompson interviewed by Brian Kernighan at VCF East 2019

In the 1960s-1970s, Ken Thompson co-invented the UNIX operating system along with Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. He also worked on the language B, the operating system Plan 9, and the language Go. He and Ritchie won the Turing Award. He now works at Google. He’ll be interviewed by Brian Kernighan of “K&R” fame.
This talk took place May 4, 2019. Videography courtesy of @thegurumeditation (Facebook), @thegurumeditate (Twitter)
Vintage Computer Federation: vcfed.org
VCF Discord: / discord
0:00 Start of Video, Introductions and Updates
8:13 Start of Fireside Chat
11:02 How Ken got to Bell Labs
17:25 Origins of UNIX
22:40 Three weeks away from an OS
29:27 The PDP-11
32:48 Pipes
35:42 GREP
38:40 Languages and Evolution
46:25 Chess Computers
1:02:40 End of Chat

[@afterthesmash]

They could make an entire movie out of AT&T trying to hire Ken Thompson, and it would be called _Searching for Ken Thompson._

[@abhisheksaseendran3861]

you could say greping for ken thompson lol

[@nathanielwoodbury2692]

Allan Stokes 😂😂😂

[@aiisnice1453]

wonders of the world wide web

[@1anre]

You feel it’ll best the Steve Jobs Biopic?

[@fikrirazaq8373]

I would like to have a movie about how Ken spent 3 weeks writing the UNIX in assembly, the McIlroy TMG's compiler and Dennis wrote the C compiler, and give it the title The Bell's Angels.

[@harkirehal258]

These guys are legends. And so humble. Talk about an influencer. This is an influencer!

[@Gravy1255]

He was brilliant, but to himself I think he thought he was kind of "dumb or average". Little did he know at the time; though, He co-created a language that would stand the test of time and be used as a base language for a lot of things in CS.

[@knyazhefilms2154]

​@@Gravy1255 He is a man of integrity and what he thought about himself is honest. He isn't dumb but average which is not to discredit him, but the popularity of what he did is explained simply by the fact that there are many dumb and average poeople around. And those dumb and average people can comprehend what he did and simply ignored other much more brighter people in the field.

[@02muarij92]

@@knyazhefilms2154 He isn't average. Lol.

[@simiuciacia]

@@knyazhefilms2154 If he's average what are we?

[@MikroLGS]

@@simiuciacia we are cockroaches

[@y__h]

The faces of people that started time. Unix timestamp that is.

[@arpanmukherjee4625]

Nice comment

[@alexa.davronov1537]

Good one.

[@MacNerfer]

In seconds from Jan 1, 1970

[@m4heshd]

Did you forget Multics?

[@theherk]

"Am I wasting too much time." Are you kidding? This is like the sermon on the mount. Take all the time you would like.

[@PauloConstantino167]

yes take all my time ken pls

[@bepsays]

This is the most interesting 1 hour on KZbin I've had in years. Ken Thomposon is a fantastic storyteller!

[@Whateverworksism]

Agreed, this is the best hour I've spent on KZbin for a while. On a site note, in case you're interested, the KZbin channel "Computerphile" regularly features videos with Brian Kernighan. Unfortunately Ken has yet to make an appearance but Brian has a dozen videos or so.

[@nirmalyasengupta7714]

Cannot agree more!

[@arslan113]

Ok iron side😂

[@1anre]

I didn’t know when I spent over 1hr watching and enjoying the tales of how UNIX which eventually gave birth to the likes of LINUX came about. I was glad that I could still comprehend some of the technical topics he glazed over, since I left university.

[@tomahzo]

No doubt! I wish they would have had like a follow-up session with more stories. Or that they would have extended the session.

[@mondskiez309]

Ken: One Week; One Week; One Week; and we had Unix.. Brian: I think programmers are not much productive these days.. Such gods speaking before mere mortals. Legendary.

[@AlexanderTeterkin]

And Ken said, Let there be UNIX: and on the third week there was UNIX. And Ken saw the UNIX, that it was good.

[@VaultRaider]

He just casually invented a game with LAN multiplayer on a machine for printing boards

[@nieczerwony]

Necessity is a mother of invention

[@ciba2nd622]

@@nieczerwony laziness is the mother of invention.

[@Alceste_]

@@ciba2nd622 & @nieczerwony Isn't Necessity how Lazy people call Inventions?

[@squallleonhart6747]

"I was a pretty good programmer"

[@syahrulrozi8233]

"i was never good at math"

[@emincanozcan4839]

@@syahrulrozi8233 test

[@russelveganeucleonps4plays820]

.DT.FTC.V_

[@toby2581]

"The Mongols were pretty good at warfare." "Isaac Newton was a pretty good natural philosopher."

[@morpheus7422]

More like "I just do stuff" 😁

[@AlejandroRodriguez-wt2mk]

"i was 3 weeks away from creating a new OS", I have been learning how to open files for a year.

[@_atrocious_4622]

Alejandro Rodriguez true story haha. Computers are difficult.

[@AlexanderTeterkin]

In early eighties it was easier (for me in Russia) because there was no so many choices: for example if I wanted to make a fast game I had to use BIOS interrupts, so I had to find a documentation. Actually I couldn't, so I had to find people who know something about it. And I could find, I would learn from them, so finally I made fast games and other programs (sort of Midnight Commander and Fast Text Editor etc.).

[@4Exp4]

@@AlexanderTeterkin It was easier because people weren't spending time on pointless crap and methodologies but instead solved the real problems.

[@1anre]

@@AlexanderTeterkin Do you have a list of cool tech inventions you’ve built over the years?

[@AlexanderTeterkin]

@@1anre Sorry, I do not have such a list.

[@gsmagesh]

Man, its full of goosebumps ... to get to know about how things were born! I mean, the real things like Unix, C, grep, pipes, etc... Very inspiring to see legends sharing the same stage! Missing Dennis Ritchie though!

[@yunjiehong4649]

Missing Dennis.

[@SoulSukkur]

One thing I really love about computer science is that it exploded so recently, we have core founders who's work has touched every part of the modern industry, acting as foundation for much of it, but they're still here and still working.

[@raghunc]

Yes, they literally laid foundations to modern computer science

[@an2qzavok]

Step one: turn projector off Step two: shut down the notebook Step three: take out paper notes

[@alexa.davronov1537]

Sounds like an Algorithm...

[@MarquisDeSang]

"We don't need that" about personal computer. inb4 mainframe masterrace.

[@Cursedminecraftman]

MarquisDeSang These guys wouldn’t be proponents of mainframes, but mini computers.

[@gloriascientiae7435]

Lol I am 26 but I still do a lot on paper. I guess its just a nice esthetic, but there are some pros to organizing things on paper. And I'm a programmer, so I definetly know how to organize large file collections on a PC.

[@rustycherkas8229]

Yes... Exactly what UNIX was meant to be: lean, mean, efficient and functional. It's like the joke about NASA spending $14million to develop a pen that works in zero-g while the Soviets just used pencils.

[@t7t810]

"And at some point, I realize without knowing it up until that point that I was three weeks from an operating system with 3 programs : one a week. An editor, I needed an editor to write code. I need an assembler to turn the code into language I could run. And I needed a little kernel kind of overlay call it an operating system. And luckily right at that moment my wife went on a three-week vacation" Ken Thompson

[@daga68]

I would stamp a T-Shirt with this paragraph anytime !!!

[@nishanth6403]

Absolute madlad

[@wojciechkaczmarek5394]

we should make a monument of the wife xD

[@pskocik]

"One week, one week, one week and we had Unix." Damn, I need to speed up work on my software project! :D

[@absalomdraconis]

The secret is to start "confined", almost the the point of uselessness. _ALMOST_ to the point of uselessness ;)

[@nicolareiman9687]

Don't forget his previous experiences on OS disgn.

[@ahmadalwazzan384]

the man was pumping assembly code faster than I write java script.

[@ch33rfulness]

In one week, I barely manage to sketch a partial solution, after having spent 30 hours in useless meetings, where we’ve decided about what and how to decide… In a year, if I ignore the copy/paste/modify, I barely write 1k lines of code, after consulting Google, of course 😂

[@gregorymccoy6797]

They should've let him talk all day. Amazing guys.

[@vcfederation]

I agree! If it was up to me, I would have him talk as long as he wanted!

[@1anre]

I love how casually Ken Thompson just says he created an editor, an assembler & a kernel in under 3weeks for the UNIX operating system while his wife & child were away on holiday & @ 37:10, he hacked away and created the GREP program overnight, to present it to his boss the next day at work since he needed such a robust SEARCH tool, as if it’s not one of the most well known and most used command line tools even till date in 2021. That amount of humility and candor shown here by him, is astonishing. Meanwhile tiny KZbinrs that’ve just gotten into Google & Amazon and worked there as SWEs for a few years, will now come on here and be making it seem like they just dropped down from heaven and are above and beyond everyone else in the Tech Space.

[@SaHaRaSquad]

"he hacked away and created the GREP program overnight" No, he didn't. He literally said he just fixed bugs for an hour or so because the boss asked him for a program that already existed on his harddrive. So he pretended like he wrote it in one night. And to be fair writing a line editor in one week is absolutely doable if you're a good programmer. Still, an absolute genius. I mean he basically invented regular expressions as we know them today.

[@vcfederation]

Yes. Ken did some amazing things!

[@vcfederation]

He is definitely is a genius who accomplished so much in this area!

[@NilesLife]

I love how they got Brian Kernighan to interview him, everything was a perfect set up for Ken to knock out of the park, great interview!

[@vcfederation]

Yes. It helped Ken to agree to the talk by having his old friend Brian interview him. Some speakers don't like monologues they prefer "the interview style" of speaking.

[@TechnicallyEvan]

Not much "they" behind it. I alone arranged for Brian and Ken to do this.

[@alexm8468]

I am a native Greek speaker. The first line on his T-shirt says: "I finally understood it!"

[@vcfederation]

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

I was hoping someone would explain it. Thanks.

[@aqk]

Hmmm.. Is this modern Greek? Or the traditional? - Ἐν οἴνῳ ἀλήθεια which I have succumbed to tonight....

[@user-ow5mn6dn7n]

These guys are rock stars of computer science and yet they are so humble. I would love to see more interviews with both of them

[@goldnutter412]

Graduated by accident.. 😂🤣

[@alexa.davronov1537]

7:55 Getting started 11:00 Bell Labs: In Pursuit of Ken Thompson 17:11 Multics OS 21:13 Invention of Unix 23:40 "Funding Unix", Dennis Ritchie kicks in 29:27 The PDP-11 30:30 Pipes 35:07 Grep command 38:35 Language B 52:53 Moscow Trip Story

[@kernelpanick636]

Not all heros wear capes

[@somebodyelse9130]

Thanks! Replying to boost this comment higher.

[@kamilziemian995]

Thank you.

[@Xrey274]

Isn't it Brian Kernighan?

[@MultiPetercool]

Does anyone else see the irony of the OS most associated with open source was developed to process patents? 😂

[@wiilillad]

For being 77, Ken looks and sounds great. =)

[@cybergal99]

as someone who's made their living with Unix since 1989 and taught Unix at NYU for years .. LOVE THIS!

[@1anre]

Isn’t it humbling to see these guys give it all out for free?

[@wattage]

Thank you so very much for recording this interview in such high quality and for sharing it with us. I love hearing about Unix history and I have desperately been wanting to watch a proper interview with Ken Thompson. And to have this one given by his friend and colleague Brian Kernighan, in a comfortable setting surrounded by fellow geeks, was absolute magic. I could have listened to hours more. The story about Doug McIlroy made my jaw drop. Such fascinating gentlemen and such unparalleled intelligence. Really enjoyed it!

[@1anre]

Are you a huge Linux proponent?

[@wattage]

@@1anre Yes, Linux is great. I find the subject of operating systems really interesting. And hearing stories about Unix' origins directly from the guys who created it (like we have here in this video), now that's just fantastic!

[@bharathkarkera3223]

Man agree to everything you told.. Unix is the best

[@Blackknight12988]

This video is a gem. I hope it never gets taken down or made private. It is something every developer should watch just so they know what it means to be a developer

[@vcfederation]

Vintage Computer Federation intends to keep this up as long as we can.

[@cannaroe1213]

Have you considered OnlyFans? I've always wondered what those mainframes would look like with only the fans.

[@antoningavrel2808]

23:11 "And luckily right at that moment my wife went on a 3 weeks vacation to take my one year old (roughly) to visit my in-laws who were in California, this period long, 1 week, 1 week, 1 week... and we had Unix"

[@shirajsharma8085]

three gods of Computer Science Dennis,Ken and Brian

[@synen]

Ada Lovelace as well.

[@capoditutticapos19]

@@synen lol

[@felipevaldes9168]

08:20 is when the interview start

[@proshadu606]

Thank you frind

[@erdi.demiroz]

Thanks my friend

[@tanveerhasan2382]

bless your heart

[@alexa.davronov1537]

1:03:50 is where it sadly ends.

[@imranariffin2688]

Someone should make a movie out of this unix legend.

[@1anre]

What would be a fitting title & who should play the roles of Ken Thompson, Brian Kernighan & Dennis Ritchie ?

[@knoxduder]

This wins at viewer comments for the month !

[@retsub3]

Future nerds are gonna be sooo jealous we saw him while he was still a living legend! Just a regular Joe that happened to do great things. Thrilled that he still loves to tell the stories. I get the feeling he's still slightly perplexed why we put him on such a pedestal for just doing what he can't help doing 😊 This sit-down is _solid gold_ ✨

[@vcfederation]

So glad that you liked this talk!

[@Elite7555]

Ken seems to be full of stories and I love it. Hoping to hear more of them.

[@bluegtturbo]

It occurred to me watching this that there Ken seems to be cut from the same cloth as Steve Wozniak. Both men unambitious and seem to have a 'hippy' attitude, but extremely successful because they love what they do!

[@hunternegron336]

Seems almost paradoxical, but it's true :)

[@m4heshd]

These guys are so humble that they completely avoid being in the trap of success paradox.

[@goldnutter412]

First world privilege is the groupthink norm these days.. if you're alive you probably grew up in a relatively spoilt generation, I know I did.. parents gave us whatever we needed etc, no working in coal mines at age 8 for me

[@karimmanaouil9354]

Hail and respect to our great masters and lords. They contributed over than 50 years of continuous and generous work for humanity: MULTICS, BCPL, UNIX, C, PLAN9, AWK, GO. How UNIX changed humanity can be compared to how Newton's classical mechanics changed the world or to how Alexander's Fleming Penicillin changed the history of biology and medical treatment.

[@rmgnair]

Good comparison

[@gli7utubeo]

Whatever happened to PLAN9 ? It was the buzz for a while in Murray Hill.

[@adulate]

insane achievement. that level of productivity is only attained when you're attuned to the subject at a soul level.

[@vcfederation]

It's rare genius like this that amazes us!

[@sauravghosh8713]

Ken Thompson is by far the ultimate geek.

[@karimmanaouil9354]

You should have said: The greatest geek that has ever stepped on earth.

[@1anre]

@@karimmanaouil9354 erm Steve Wozniak?

[@gnupph]

@@1anre wozniak’s technical contribution to the computing world is almost nothing compared to these legends

[@1anre]

@@gnupph I won’t undermine Wozniak’s contribution though. These guys built some very good tech frameworks that we still use in servers and enterprise environment today but Wozniak was no slouch.

[@marciomaiajr]

This is gold! I wish they had made the interview when Dennis Ritchie was still alive. Thanks so much for uploading it.

[@tomahzo]

True, although there are some decent videos on YT from the Bell Labs vault where Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson and others are talking about these things. Here's one example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKC5goeGl6lpi7s . But, yeah, a fireside chat like this with Dennis Richie would've been great :).

[@heavyaccept]

Mr. Ken Thompson's t-shirt: "ΕΠΙΤΕΛΟΥΣ ΤΟ ΚΑΤΑΛΑΒΑ!", meaning, "Finally, I get it!" or "Finally, I understand it!", and with this beard he looks like Archimedes! Usually, the computer geeks are people with no sense of humor, but in this case, this guy has a plenty of it! Anyway, a true genius, humble and funny guy.

[@johnwolves2705]

but can you explain the code below it 😂

[@panographic]

Ken Thompson is a national treasure

[@vcfederation]

A very special guy!

[@flippert0]

Besides UNIX itself, pipes are probably the greatest general invention that came out of the UNIX development. The whole talk is amazing.

[@vcfederation]

We are so glad that you liked it!

[@tanishshrivastava2442]

I really wanted Dennis to live longer, so I could watch him somewhere like this. Alas, we rarely get what we want.

[@1anre]

Damn. Didn’t know he’s passed. What are your top inventions from him?

[@tanishshrivastava2442]

@@1anre Just one. c programming language, which serves as a foundation of various modern software to this day.

[@imrank340]

These guy truly a father of modern computer technology, in their own right command respect and perseverence, sadly Denis passed away, seeing these duo very satisfying.

[@vcfederation]

Yes. It is wonderful to have these two together. It's too bad that Denis passed away before we could record them together.

[@bariswheel]

Thanks for sharing and posting this, loved it

[@anthonybenjamin2040]

Beautiful! Thank you for uploading this video!

[@QED2008]

Thank you for putting this out. So good.

[@brianrhg]

Thank you for recording this.

[@RideGasGas]

Great interview, thanks for arranging it, recording, and posting.

[@dilipsharan8699]

Brilliant! Loved it

[@ardalanahanchi3977]

This interview is amazing! These guys are absolute legends in the computing world.

[@zerklang]

Thanks for posting!

[@erajoj]

Amazing! Loved every second.

[@hugotwinpeaks]

Thanks for this amazing vid 😀

[@arabzadeh]

I was amazing watching legends like them talk about their past. Thank you very much for sharing the video with us.

[@AliMirjamali]

Thank you very much for the video. I am grateful for being able to listen to these guys.

[@juanok2775]

This is so good!! Thanks

[@giorgiogrisetti4277]

I teach operating systems. My students have issues in closing their jaw when I reveal that some marketing person they worship did not know what program is. Yet they don't know who Dennis, Ken and Brian are. As a start , I subministered them this video. A healthy mixture of humbleness, competence and honesty. I hope this spirit will come back someday.

[@vcfederation]

It is hard to replicated the spirit of what was done in the "vintage computer" days.

[@benjaminscherrey1124]

Great talk! Two of my favorite people.

[@oliveryang177]

I loved every minute of it

[@Velo1010]

Very enjoyable video with historical significance. Thanks for sharing.

[@germansnowman]

Oral history interviews like this one are pure gold. Thanks for preserving history for us!

[@vcfederation]

That is part of our mission to preserve the history of vintage computers. We are glad to record this for posterity.

[@lennyedwards62]

Fantastic storyteller and an absolute legend. Thanks. This was a great watch. Best wishes

[@tsconn23]

Wow, this is great! I'd never heard of this conference before but I have now!

[@FilipBekic01]

This is my favorite interview on KZbin so far.

[@lucasb3h3m0th]

So much love and respect for these men!

[@youreale]

Two legends. Thank you VCF for preserving this.

[@vcfederation]

You are very welcome! We are glad that you enjoy it!

[@TheZindarod]

I could have listened to this interview for hours.

[@kanduriveeresh9568]

One of the best interview

[@aceflamez00]

Holy crap a Ken interview, I've been waiting so long

[@seandavidniemann4563]

Me too!

[@trichomaxxx]

I could've listened for longer, great conversation!

[@vcfederation]

Yes! Such interesting an conversation!

[@mitchelvalentino1569]

Truly incredible. Thank you very much for uploading this video.

[@feixu7582]

You are all good designers + Thanks + Go on!

[@3145mimosa]

I like every single moment of this interview - Ken Thompson is so inspiring!

[@User36282]

Wow I could listen to their stories for ever! Such interesting stuff happened that we've never heard about haha.

[@homtom2]

I could listen to Ken talk for hours

[@mobilegentecnologiasybioin6151]

Wow. Thank you.

[@werewolf_13]

Wonderful people. Hope in my life, I will be able to contribute to the community as they did.

[@nazavode]

Thank you for this piece of history of computing. I'm so glad the foundations of what we use today were laid out by these brilliant minds striving for elegance and simplicity.

[@bolnyaluo4601]

It is really inspiring to sit at the feet of these grand elders and be bathed in their experience. Its like being in a dream. Ritchie, Thompson, Kernighan.... are the World's apex of computer programming.

[@dogriffiths]

I could listen to these men all week

[@alexa.davronov1537]

I can listen to both of them like... forever.

[@michaelbauers8800]

Wow, this is one of the greatest computer science related videos I have seen. I started with UNIX late 1980s or something. And worshipped the simple ideas behind it, and thought, these people were smart, they knew what to leave out. Amazing seeing some of my idols in a video! I should see if there's a video soley focused on the Belle chess system. Partly developed by Ken Thompson.

[@vcfederation]

Thanks for sharing!

[@ClintPachl]

Wish this was 10 more hours.

[@MuhammadFHasan]

Fantastic interview, those guys at Bell Labs are geniuses.

[@argonwheatbelly637]

Always a great storyteller. It's been decades since I've seen him, and Dennis, and Lorne... Great memories!

[@raym6415]

Thank you for sharing! I really enjoyed it 💕💕

[@vcfederation]

I'm so glad that you enjoyed it!

[@commandershepard1944]

We need more Ken Thompson

[@nathanhenry2747]

kind of a shame that the talk couldn't go longer. I very much enjoyed it though and I hope that Ken Thompson can come back at a later festival.

[@your_name96]

I am once again back here !

[@euclideszoto997]

Wow. The memories. Didnt know this was here.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

I could listened to this for days ^^

[@vcfederation]

Yeah. I keep trying to convince him to come back and do another talk. He's difficult to persuade.

[@kevinforth7618]

This was fantastic, and brought back a lot of memories from the 1970s. Thanks so much for posting this.

[@vcfederation]

You are very welcome. This is our most popular video. Very rare opportunity to hear his story.

[@soundofmusic94]

this is what internet is for... what legends you had here.. thanks for sharing

[@vcfederation]

Such awesome legends!

[@patux]

Amazing to see and hear these legends together again.

[@atribhattacharyya2631]

This is absolute Gold !!

[@vcfederation]

Absolutely!

[@danielphd5072]

Here are legends

[@ryanarborist]

I saw this in person. It was standing room only by the time I got there. I remember Ken at one point saying 34:35 "I was never good at math." I'd been going to VCF East for a few years at this point, I'm sad I missed it in 2020. One guy at VCF East has an Altair 8800 and AM radio that plays Daisy picking up the CPU cycles.

[@octoberskye1049]

Thank you, LW! This is phenomenal! ☺🐯

[@vcfederation]

LW?

[@octoberskye1049]

@@vcfederation Thoughtfully forwarded to me (J.Skye Smith) by Lauren Weinstein. 🐯

[@EricsEdgeVideos]

Three years later and it still holds up!

[@vcfederation]

Absolutely!

[@ripnephils148]

I enjoyed all of this !

[@vcfederation]

Glad that you liked it!

[@CommodoreAmiga]

I could sit and listen for hours!

[@vcfederation]

Yes. I agree!

[@darta1094]

Amazingly nice and free people were creating amazing things at that time

[@tejassardana6266]

Really really really amazing learning experience listening to this.

[@vcfederation]

We're glad that you enjoyed it!

[@MultiPetercool]

LOVE the story of “Belle” the chess playing computer.

[@vcfederation]

That's a great story!