First Unix Experience in 1977

Funded by Grandmother Lorene Pickett: The Sol-20 and Pennywhistle Modem

• Seeing my dedication, my maternal grandmother Lorene Pickett generously funded my computer setup by purchasing a Sol-20 (Processor Technology Sol-20) microcomputer.
• It was equipped with sufficient RAM to execute BASIC alongside a terminal emulator program, paired with a Pennywhistle 103 Modem acoustic coupler operating at 110 baud.

The Reed College Connection and ls /usr/games

• Right around that time, someone shared a local dial-up telephone number that connected directly to the Reed College computer system in Portland, running Unix V6 (Research Unix Version 6 on a PDP-11).
• They gave me an account name (sarcher) that had no password configured.
• The only instruction they provided was a single command: `bash ls /usr/games `
• That was the totality of what anyone told me about Unix.

Self-Teaching Unix and C at 110 Baud

• Having typed ls /usr/games and seen the directory listing, I immediately began experimenting:
  • Running ls on other directories throughout the filesystem.
  • Executing every single binary command I could find inside /bin.
  • Discovering Unix communications utilities to chat with the Reed College system administrators—who were very friendly and wondered how this kid dialing in from Beaverton had found their system. (Amusingly, the sarcher account I was using actually belonged to one of the sysadmins, who had left it with a null password!).
  • Stumbling upon the operating system source directories, where I saw code written in the C Programming Language.
• While I didn't initially have a working C compiler on my end to build programs, I later obtained a copy of the classic white The C Programming Language|K&R C Bible by Kernighan and Ritchie, which finally unlocked complete understanding of all the Unix C source code I had explored.

Early Graduation and the Move to Beaverton (January 1978)

• In January 1978, at 16 years old (having turned 16 in October 1977), I graduated early from Colton High School.
• Having moved into the basement of my uncle Earl Pickett Jr's home in Beaverton, my uncle introduced me to a manager at Tektronix, leading to my summer temp job in May/June 1978 and a four-year tenure as a salaried technical writer before moving into software engineering. See Landing at Tektronix at Age 16 Through Uncle's Introduction.