GNU Autoconf, Automake, and Libtool

1.1. The Diversity of Unix Systems

Of the programs discussed in this book, the first to be developed was autoconf. The history of the Unix operating system determined its development.

Dennis Ritchie of Bell Labs wrote the first version of Unix in 1969. During the 1970s, Bell Labs was not permitted to sell Unix commercially, but did distribute Unix to universities at relatively low cost. The University of California at Berkeley added their own improvements to the Unix sources; the result was known as the BSD version of Unix.

In the early 1980s, AT&T signed an agreement permitting them to sell Unix commercially. The first AT&T version of Unix was known as System III.

As the popularity of Unix increased during the 1980s, several other companies ...