ITS

   1.  Incompatible  Time-sharing  System,  an influential though highly
   idiosyncratic  operating system written for PDP-6s and PDP-10s 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}). There is an ITS home page.

   2.  A  mythical  image  of operating-system perfection worshiped by a
   bizarre,  fervent  retro-cult  of  old-time hackers and ex-users (see
   {troglodyte},  sense  2).  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}.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {alt}{cookie monster}{CTSS}{daemon}{DDT}{deserves to lose}{elder days}{EMACS}{film at 11}{high moby}{holy wars}{operating system}{PDP-10}{security through obscurity}{TOPS-10}{TWENEX}{Unix conspiracy}{Weenix}]