DEMOS

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DEMOS / Демос
Demos on Windows 95.jpg
Logging into a DEMOS 3.0 unix system
Type: Multitasking, multiuser
Creator: Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy parts from AT&T/Western Electric & CSRG
Architecture: PDP-11, CM 1700, 68020, XT Clones.
This Version: 3.0
Date Released: 1983?


DEMOS / Демос was a Soviet version of Unix that included portions of AT&T Unix, portions from BSD, and some parts translated into Russian, and other utilities written in Russian. I think the PDP-11 version 2 of DEMOS was based on 2.9 BSD.

There was also a 32bit version to the VAX clone, the CM 1700 although I can't find any solid information other than it was based on 4.2 BSD.

In the book The Cuckoo's Egg, it's mentioned that the Russians already had the source to 4.2 BSD. On some mechanical translations it does appear that the KGB had nothing to do with providing the BSD to the DEMOS team.

Getting it to run

Right now the easiest way is to simply download the archive from Serge Vakulenko's site. Just unzip & run. Binaries are included for Linux / Windows. You'll want some kind of terminal capable of ASCII / Cyrillic / KOI8-R.