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New to Survey of Operating
Systems, Fifth Edition
General changes in this Fifth Edition:
• We removed The Command-Line Interface, the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 9,
and moved appropriate content into the Windows and OS X chapters.
• We added a new chapter, Chapter 6: Windows 10. This required renum-
bering the Fourth Edition Chapters 6, 7, and 8 to 7, 8, and 9. Because we
also removed the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 9, the next two chapters, 10
and 11, still have the same numbers and titles, although we updated
them.
• In addition to reviewing and updating the content from the
Fourth Edition, we worked to tighten the text throughout, improve
the flow, and remove topics that are no longer relevant.
• Finally, you will find updated exercises, figures, and illustrations to sup-
port learning.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Operating Systems


• We added a short description of the Internet of Things (IoT) and system-
on-a-chip (SoC).
• We updated content and images in the section titled Today’s Desktop
Operating Systems to include Windows 10.
• We updated text and images under Mobile Operating System Features.

Chapter 2 Computer Security Basics


• We updated chapter content and images, as appropriate.

Chapter 3 Desktop Virtualization


• We updated chapter content and images, and removed out-of-date con-
tent concerning Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

Chapter 4 Windows 7
• This is now a leaner, more targeted chapter. In the Fourth Edition this
chapter included some coverage of Windows Vista, which we removed in
this Fifth Edition. We updated the text and appropriate images.

Chapter 5 Windows 8.1


• Because Windows 8 is no longer a new operating system, we removed,
moved, updated, and scaled down content about the features of
Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, and focused on the latter version. This
reduced the Learning Outcomes from five to four, making the chapter
more digestible.

vii

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Chapter 6 Windows 10 (New Chapter)
• This chapter introduces the latest version of Windows, beginning with
selecting an edition, installing or updating it, and using the new desk-
top, universal apps, and other features.

Chapter 7 Under the Windows Desktop: Supporting and


Troubleshooting Windows
• This chapter is an update to the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 6, with cover-
age of Windows 10 added where appropriate. We moved the Windows
Command Prompt, PowerShell, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, and System
Recovery Command Prompt discussions into this chapter from the former
Command-Line Interface chapter.

Chapter 8 Apple OS X on the Desktop


• This chapter is an update to the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 7. The content
and images in this chapter now include coverage of new features in the
latest version of OS X: El Capitan (10.11).

Chapter 9 Linux on the Desktop


• This chapter is an update to the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 8. After doing a
major revision for the Fourth Edition, we only needed to update the con-
tent in this chapter.

Chapter 10 Connecting Desktops and Laptops to Networks


• This is an update to the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 10. We updated content
and images, where appropriate.

Chapter 11 Mobile Operating Systems


• This is a revision of the Fourth Edition’s Chapter 11. We updated content
and images to include new mobile OS features in Android, Apple iOS,
and Windows.

Appendix: Windows Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts


• We updated this revision of the Fourth Edition’s Appendix B to include
Windows 10.

Chapter 12 File Management in the Cloud (found at www


.mhhe.com/holcombe5)
• This bonus chapter is an introduction to file management of personal
data in the cloud.

viii NEW TO SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS, FIFTH EDITION

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Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHORS III Passwords 66


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS III Security Account Basics 66
Best Practices When Assigning Permissions 69
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IV
Best Practices with User Names and Passwords 70
ABOUT THIS BOOK V
Encryption 72
NEW TO SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS, Data Wiping 73
FIFTH EDITION VII Physical Security 74
INTRODUCTION XIII Security for Mobile Computing 74

Troubleshooting Common Security


Problems 74

1 Introduction to Operating
Systems 1
Troubleshooting Log-On Problems 75
Using the Administrator Account in Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting a Suspected Malware Attack 76
76

An Overview of Microcomputer Operating


CHAPTER 2 REVIEW 80
Systems 2
About Microcomputers 2
Functions of Microcomputer Operating Systems 5

Yesterday’s Operating Systems 11


UNIX—The Operating System for All Platforms 12 3 Desktop
Virtualization 85
The Evolution of Desktop Operating Systems 13
Virtualization Overview 86
Today’s Desktop Operating Systems 26 Virtualization Is Everywhere 86
Today’s Windows for the Desktop 26 Your (Great?) Grandparent’s Virtual Machines 87
Apple OS X 29 Today’s Virtual Desktops 87
Linux 30
Virtual Machines on Windows Desktops 90
Today’s Mobile Operating Systems 30 Windows XP Mode and Windows
Mobile Devices 31 Virtual PC on Windows 7 90
Connectivity 31 Client Hyper-V on Windows 8.x and Windows 10 100
Mobile Operating System Features 32 Oracle VirtualBox 102

CHAPTER 1 REVIEW 34 Virtual Machines on OS X 103


Apple Boot Camp—A Dual-Boot Option 103
Oracle VirtualBox 104

2 Computer Security CHAPTER 3 REVIEW 111


Basics 39
Threats to Computers and Users 40
Malicious Tools and Methods 40
Accidents, Mistakes, and Disasters 52
4 Windows 7 115
Keeping Track of New Threats 52
Installing Windows 7 115
The People Behind the Threats 53
The Windows 7 Lifecycle 116
Defense Against Threats 54 Recommended System Requirements 116
Education 54 Windows 7 Editions 116
Security Policies 55 Upgrade Paths 117
Firewalls 56 Preparing to Install Windows 7 118
Security Software 59 The Installation 121
Authentication and Authorization 64 PostInstallation Tasks 125

ix

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Windows 7 Features 127
The Windows 7 Desktop 128
File System Support 133
Security 135
6 Windows 10 207
Program Compatibility 135 Installing Windows 10 207
Recovery Tools 136 Windows 10 Editions 208
System Requirements 209
Customizing and Managing
Upgrading to Windows 10 209
Windows 7 137
Preparing to Install Windows 10 214
Computer Management 137
The Installation 217
Preparing the Desktop for Users 138
Installing and Removing Applications 143 Postinstallation Tasks 224
Managing Windows Components 144 Get Acquainted with the New GUI 224
Simple File Management 144 Install and Troubleshoot Drivers 227
Personalize Windows 10 233
Managing Local Security in Windows 7 150
Configure Windows Update 236
Administering Local User Accounts 150
Make Windows 10 Run Better in a Virtual Machine 239
Local Security for Files and Folders 153
Remove Unwanted Software 239
BitLocker Drive Encryption 155
Migrate or Restore Data 239
Windows Defender 157
Back Up Data and the System 240
Microsoft Security Essentials 157
Windows Firewall 157 Working with Windows 10 Features 241
CHAPTER 4 REVIEW 158 Using the Start Menu 242
Getting Started with Cortana 248
Using Apps in Windows 10 249

Securing Windows 10 254

5
Privacy Settings 254
Windows Hello 254
Windows 8.1 163 Microsoft Passport 255
Windows Defender 255
Installing Windows 8.1 164 Windows Firewall 256
System Requirements 164
Windows 8 and 8.1 Editions 164 CHAPTER 6 REVIEW 257
Upgrade Paths 165
Preparing to Install Windows 8.1 165

7 Supporting and Troubleshooting


The Installation 173

Postinstallation Tasks 178 Windows 263


Installing Drivers 178
Installing Updates 179 Understanding the Registry 264
Virtual Machine Guest Additions 182 The Registry Defined 264
Remove Unnecessary Software 182 Automatic Registry Changes 264
Create a Backup Image 182 Registry Files 264
Turn on File History 183 The Temporary Portion of the Registry 267
Shutting Down Windows 8.1 183 Viewing and Editing the Registry 267
Backing Up the Registry 268
Navigating and Configuring
Windows 8.1 185 Windows User and Power Options 272
A GUI Optimized for Touch Devices 185 User Options 272
Keyboard Shortcuts 187 Power Options 273
The Lock Screen 187 Windows 7 Startup Phases 274
The Start Screen 187 Windows Secure Boot and Fast Boot 276
The Desktop 191 Modifying System Startup 277
Managing Apps 195
Installing and Managing Device Drivers 281
Securing Windows 8.1 198 Installing Device Drivers 281
Windows Defender 198 Managing Installed Devices 282
Administering Local User Accounts 199
Using Windows Troubleshooting
Windows SmartScreen 201
and Recovery Tools 287
A Windows 8.1 Computer in a Kiosk 202
For Startup Failures: The Windows
CHAPTER 5 REVIEW 203 Recovery Environment 287

x CONTENTS

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Troubleshooting with Modified Startups 288 Linux Distributions 352
Troubleshooting Device Problems 298 Benefits of Linux 352
Drawbacks of Linux 354
CHAPTER 7 REVIEW 300
Linux on Your Desktop 356
Acquiring Linux for the Desktop 356

8 Apple OS X on the
Desktop 305
Installing Linux or Using a Live Image 359

Exploring a Linux GUI 359


Logging In to Ubuntu Linux 359
OS X History and Versions 305
The Ubuntu Unity Desktop 360
A Brief History of the Apple Operating Systems 305 System Settings 365
OS X Versions 306 Modify the Desktop 365
Installing and Upgrading OS X 309 Ending a Linux Session from the GUI 367
Setting Up a New Mac 309 Linux Command-Line Interface 368
Preparing to Install OS X 309 The Terminal Window in Linux 368
The Installation 312 Using Linux Shell Commands 369
Postinstallation Tasks 315
Securing a Linux Desktop 376
Navigating and Managing the OS X Desktop 316
Managing Users 376
The Desktop Menu Bar 316 File and Folder Permissions 380
File Management in Finder 317
Changing Settings in OS X 324 CHAPTER 9 REVIEW 382
Launching and Switching between
Apps with the Dock 325
Using the Heads-Up Program Switcher 326
View and Manage All Programs in Launchpad 326

10 Connecting Desktops and


Declutter the Desktop with Mission Control 327
Notification Center 329
Menu Extras 329
Laptops to Networks 387
Printing in OS X 329 Configuring a Network Connection 388
AirPlay 330
Understanding the TCP/IP Protocol Suite 388
Managing Local Security in OS X 330 Transmission Control Protocol 388
Check Out the OS X Firewall 331 Internet Protocol 388
Gatekeeper 331 Connecting to the Internet 400
Kernel ASLR 332
Internet Service Providers 400
Digitally Signed and Sandboxed Apps 332
Computer-to-Internet versus LAN-to-Internet 400
FileVault 332
Wired Connectivity Technologies 401
Secure Virtual Memory 332
Wireless Connectivity Technologies 403
Keychain 333
Using a Virtual Private Network 406
Managing Local User Accounts 334
Using Internet Clients 407
Troubleshooting Common
Mac OS Problems 337 Web Browsers 407
Email Clients 416
Where to Find Help 337
FTP Clients 421
When to Quit 338
OS X Failure to Quit 338 Sharing Files and Printers 421
Forgotten Password 338 The Server Side of File and Printer Sharing 422
Disappearing Sidebar Items 339 The Client Side of File and Printer Sharing 422
Useful System Utilities 339 Sharing Files and Printers with Windows
Using Terminal in OS X 340 HomeGroups 422
CHAPTER 8 REVIEW 344 Troubleshooting Common Network Client
Problems 426
Built-In Network Diagnostics 426

9 Linux on the
Desktop 349
Testing IP Configurations and Connectivity 426
Troubleshooting Connection Problems with
tracert 430
Linux Overview 350 Troubleshooting DNS Errors Using ping, netstat, and
nslookup 430
Why Learn Linux? 350
The Evolution of Linux 350 CHAPTER 10 REVIEW 432

CONTENTS xi

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Email, Apps, and Synchronization 448

11 Mobile Operating
Systems 437
Configuring Email 448
Mobile Apps 451
Synchronization 452
From Luggable to BYOD 438 Securing Mobile Devices 455
Mobile Computing Then and Now 438
Security Software for Mobile Devices 455
Mobile Devices and BYOD 439
Patching and OS Updates 455
Configuring Accounts and Wireless Connections Securing Lock Screens on Mobile Devices 456
on Mobile Devices 441 Location Settings 457
Your Mobile Device Account 442 Lost or Stolen Devices 458
Connecting to Cellular Networks 444 CHAPTER 11 REVIEW 461
Connecting to Wi-Fi Networks 444
Mobile Hotspots 446 APPENDIX WINDOWS MOUSE AND
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS 465
Tethering 446
Connecting to Bluetooth Devices 446 GLOSSARY 469
Connecting with Near Field Communications 448 PHOTO CREDITS 483
Airplane Mode 448
INDEX 485

xii CONTENTS

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Introduction

What Will You Learn?


The first four editions of this book were well received by instructors and stu-
dents. This fifth edition updates the material and presents new information
that is relevant to the topic of desktop operating systems, including Windows,
Apple OS X, and Linux. In addition to these operating systems, this edition
includes new information on mobile operating systems, as well as chapters on
subjects peripheral to operating systems, such as computer security, desktop
virtualization, and connecting computers and mobile devices to networks.
We carefully revised every chapter as needed, with more illustrations and
plenty of hands-on opportunities. We have added content throughout, while
working to streamline the book in response to feedback we received from
instructors.

How Will You Learn?


We don’t want to simply give you an encyclopedia of information because it
can feel like you’re standing in front of an information fire hose, and we’ve
been there ourselves many times in the past decades. Rather, keeping in mind
that “less is more,” we present just the key points about operating systems,
and guide you in your own exploration of the specifics of the technology. One
book simply can’t give you everything you need to know about operating sys-
tems, but we do hope to empower you and to increase your ability to use
widely available tools and resources to figure out the answers to your ques-
tions. Such tools as the Internet and the help program in your OS are aids you
should turn to when you need to learn more about a topic, and when you want
to enhance your skills in working with each of these operating systems—and
with computers in general.
Each chapter uses many techniques to help you learn. We start by listing
learning outcomes, follow that up with a lucid explanation of each topic, and
support it with real-world experience and a liberal use of graphics and tables.
To give you hands-on experience and to help you “walk the walk,” each
chapter contains detailed Step-by-Step tutorials and short Try This! exercises
to reinforce the concepts. To build vocabulary to help you “talk the talk,” each
chapter contains computer term definitions, highlighted in a Key Terms List
and compiled into a Glossary at the end of the book.
We’ve also included notes, which provide handy pieces of knowledge to
use with your desktop OS. Warnings will help you prevent mishaps.
You can measure what you’ve learned with end-of-chapter Key Terms,
Multiple-Choice, and Essay quizzes. In addition, Lab Projects challenge you
to independently complete tasks related to what you’ve just learned.

xiii

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Let’s Get Down to Work
OK, enough of this introductory stuff. This is the last time in this book that
you’ll see so many words without illustrations. From now on it’s downright
exciting. Learn a lot and have fun!

Supplements
For teachers using this book in the classroom, a powerful collection of teaching
tools written by the authors is available online at www.mhhe.com/holcombe5:
• An Instructor’s Manual that maps to the organization of the textbook
and provides additional instructor tips and activities to use with
the book.
• A test bank for each chapter available online in either Word or EZ Test
format.
• Engaging PowerPoint slides on the lecture topics, including key points
and illustrations from the chapters.
• A bonus chapter entitled “File Management in the Cloud” with an over-
view of cloud services as well as the basics of using cloud storage for
personal data.

Jane Holcombe
Charles Holcombe

xiv INTRODUCTION

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1
chapter
Introduction to
Operating Systems
Learning Outcomes
In this chapter, you will learn how to:
LO 1.1 Describe the purpose and
functions of operating
systems.
LO 1.2 Describe major events in
the evolution of operating
systems.
LO 1.3 List and compare the
common desktop
operating systems in use
today.
LO 1.4 List the most common
mobile OSs, the devices
associated with them, and
the features found in most
of these devices.

U
nderstanding operating systems (OSs) is critical to your future suc-
cess in life. It is. Just believe us. You don’t? You say you drive a car
just fine, but you don’t understand its engine, transmission, or other
systems? So why can’t you just use your computer? Why do you have to even
know it has an OS? If you can successfully operate a car, you actually know
more about its internal workings than you realize. You turn on the ignition,
shift to the correct gear, press the accelerator, and drive down the street with-
out hitting anything. You stop it (in time, usually). You use your car to go
somewhere, thus making the car your transportation tool. Having only super-
ficial knowledge of the workings of your car is adequate if you never intend to
repair your car or to explain to a mechanic the symptoms of a problem. And
just as you can use a car without in-depth knowledge of how it works, you can
use your computer to write a letter, send email, create a report, surf the Inter-
net, participate in social networking, and much more without understanding
operating systems. You only have to know how to turn it on, call up the appli-
cation program you wish to use, perform tasks, and turn it off.

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But if you ever want to understand how your car actually works, you need
to spend time studying it. And if you want to get the most out of the comput-
ers you use in your work, school, and private life, you need to understand how
the most critical software component, the computer’s operating system, works.
This chapter provides an overview of microcomputer operating sys-
tems—specifically, those commonly found on desktop and laptop computers
and the personal mobile devices we use today. We’ll begin with a brief look
at microcomputers—their components and their general types. Then we’ll
explore the functions that operating systems perform, as well as describe the
classic categories of operating systems. Finally, we introduce you to the OSs in
all types of microcomputers including those in home and office computers as
well as tablets and smartphones.

LO 1.1 l An Overview of Microcomputer


Operating Systems
An operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that controls all of the
Note: The OS is an interpretor interactions among the various system components, freeing application pro-
between the user and the
hardware.
grammers from needing to include such functions in their programs. An
application is software that allows a user to perform useful functions, such as
writing a report, picking up email, editing graphics, calculating a budget, and
much more. Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop are applications. Applica-
tions send commands to the OS to interact with the hardware. This book
explores the common operating systems used in microcomputers, but before
we explore, let’s answer a few general questions you may have: What is a
microcomputer? What microcomputers are you using today?

About Microcomputers
Our friend Brianna uses a PC at work and an Apple iMac at home,
and she always has her smartphone handy. She will soon take
night classes in which she will use either a tablet or laptop that
she will carry to and from school. She wants to learn more about the
computers she uses each day, beginning with the hardware.

Hardware Components
To understand microcomputers, you need to learn a few tech-
nical terms. A computer is a device that performs calculations.
Early computers had many mechanical components, but a typical
modern computer is an electronic device that can perform a huge
number of useful tasks for its owner. Any computer, small or
A typical PC with components.
large, has a central processing unit (CPU) that performs the calculations, or
processing for the computer.
A microcomputer is a computer small enough and cheap enough for the
use of one person. The CPU in a microcomputer is a microprocessor, although
many still refer to it simply as a CPU or processor. This miniaturization of
computer components became possible through the invention and develop-
ment of many technologies. One of the most important of those inventions was
Note: Common slang for
an integrated circuit is the integrated circuit (IC), a small electronic component made up of transistors
“chip.” (tiny switches) and other miniaturized parts. These replaced the bulky vac-
uum tubes in early TVs and in mid-twentieth century mainframe computers.
Each computer that Brianna uses consists of many components, some of
which allow her to interact with it. In techie talk, we call interaction with a

2 SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

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computer input/output (I/O). When we send something into the computer we
call it input. You are inputting through input devices when you type on the
keyboard, tap on a touch screen, or talk to a computer through a microphone.
Output is processed information of many types: sounds sent through the
speakers, visual output to the display screen or printer and data files saved or
sent over a network.
In a microcomputer the internal components include at least one micro-
Note: Random-access memory
processor, random-access memory (RAM) that acts as the main memory for (RAM) is volatile: when you
holding active programs and associated data, firmware (software resident in turn off the computer the
integrated circuits), and various other supporting circuitry, all installed onto contents in RAM
a motherboard. The typical microcomputer also has some form of storage, disappear.
such as a hard drive, and it has at least one means each for input and
output.
System firmware contains program code that informs the processor of
the devices present and how to communicate with them. Firmware is an
interface between the hardware and the operating system. The system firm-
ware in PCs for most of the last three decades has been read only memory
basic input output system (ROM BIOS), which has been replaced by a new
standard for system firmware called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
(UEFI). UEFI supports modern computers, while ROM BIOS had many techni-
cal limits because it was designed to work with the original IBM PC. UEFI is
faster and includes security features that protect the computer during that
vulnerable time while an operating system is just starting up and not entirely
in control.
Additionally, most components and peripheral devices that connect
to a computer (such as the video and network adapters, USB ports, and Note: Fortunately, you may never
need to be concerned about
digital cameras) have their own firmware, which is often limited to small device drivers because they
programs for providing basic communication between the operating sys- install automatically in most
tem and the component. Supplementing or replacing the firmware—even operating systems.
parts of the central system firmware—are device drivers. A device driver
is a special program installed into an operating system. Each device driver
contains code for controlling a component; it is an extension of the firm-
ware, usually allowing much more control of a device than the device’s
firmware.
Although you may never be aware of the firmware on a mobile device, on
an older PC or laptop you may see evidence of the system and other firmware
as they perform tests of the hardware. The traditional system firmware test
is known as the power on self-test (POST). Carefully watch the screen as you
power up the computer, as shown in Figure 1–1. If status and error messages
display in plain text on a black background during startup, they are the result
of the POST and the tests of additional firmware on the computer’s compo-
nents. More recent computers may show a message only if there is a serious
problem with the computer.

FIGURE 1–1 An example of a firmware start-up message on an old PC.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Operating Systems 3

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In general, consumers encountered their first microcomputers in 1977
with the introduction of Apple’s Apple II, Radio Shack’s TRS-80, and Com-
modore’s PET. It was the Apple II that best combined the critical elements that
defined a microcomputer at the time; these included a keyboard, a monitor,
available peripherals, an operating system, desirable and useful applications,
and a reasonable price tag.

Today’s Microcomputers
What microcomputers do you use? The answer will include several, depend-
ing on your activities. The miniaturization of computers led to computers
being built into all types of machinery, including vehicles, aircraft, and appli-
ances. And that is just the short list. Computers touch our lives 24/7, and each
has some form of operating system. For our purposes, we will concentrate
on the operating systems in desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. We will
limit the mobile device OSs to those in tablets and smartphones. Another
type of computer that you use less directly is a server. Servers also use
microcomputer technology, but on a larger scale. We describe these types of
microcomputers next.

Desktops and Laptops. A desktop computer is a computer designed to


spend its useful life in one location—on a desk. A laptop computer has
a flat screen and a keyboard, each integrated into a panel with a hinge
holding the two together and allowing you to close the laptop and slip it
into a case for easy portability. There are many sizes and types of laptop
computers. Laptops are often used as portable replacements for desktop
PCs. The common operating systems for these computers are Microsoft
Windows and Linux for PCs and laptops, and Apple’s OS X, which runs
on Apple’s Mac desktop and laptop computers. The same version of the
Windows OS will run on a desktop, a compatible laptop computer, or a
A PC laptop.
compatible tablet.
In the decades since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, the majority
of desktop and laptop computers used in private and public organizations
have used Microsoft operating systems, with computers running versions of
Apple’s operating systems a distant second. In recent years however, Apple
desktop and laptop computers have made great gains in market share, but
Apple’s real advances have been in their mobile products.

Mobile Devices. Microcomputers today include a long list of devices that


don’t have computer in their name, including mobile devices. A mobile device
has all or most of its electronic circuitry, such as the microprocessor, control-
lers, and memory, on a single microchip. This is known as system-on-a-chip
A MacBook laptop.
(SoC). Mobile devices use wireless technologies and include a wide variety of
products ranging from single-purpose computers to multifunction mobile
devices. Some mobile devices run proprietary OSs, while others run scaled-
down versions of desktop OSs. A mobile device commonly stores its OS in
firmware, as an embedded OS.
The most popular mobile devices are smartphones. Worldwide use of
Note: In this book we use the
smartphones continues to grow significantly. Market research firm GfK
term personal computer (PC)
for a desktop computer running reported 309.7 million smartphones sold in the first quarter of 2015, an increase
Windows or Linux and Mac for the of 7 percent over the first quarter of 2014. A smartphone works as a cell phone,
Apple iMac desktop computers as but also lets you connect to the Internet, view your email, and install and run a
well as the MacBook laptop variety of apps for entertainment, education, and work. Modern smartphones
computers. Both types
have high-quality touch screens. Examples of smartphones are Apple’s iPhones
of Apple computers run
OS X. and various models by Motorola, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, and others.
Examples of operating systems designed specifically for use on smartphones

4 SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

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include Google’s Android, Apple
iOS, Windows Phone (versions 7, 8, try this!
and 8.1), and Windows 10 Mobile. More About Tablets
Another very popular type of The tablet market changes quickly. Check out what is happening with
mobile device is a tablet. A tablet tablets. Try this:
has a touch screen, no integrated
1. Using your PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, open a browser and
keyboard (usually), is larger than a
(using a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo) search on the
smartphone, and is much more por-
key words “tablet reviews.”
table than a laptop. There are many
lines of tablet products, such as 2. Browse through the sites you find in the list of results, selecting
the Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface, recent reviews.
Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus 3. Read a few of the reviews to learn about the latest tablet features
Sony Xperia, and Kindle Fire. The and comparative pricing.
tablet operating systems we will 4. Describe to a classmate how you would (or do) use a tablet at school
study in this book are Apple iOS, or work.
Google Android, Microsoft Win-
dows 8.1, and Windows 10.

Servers. A server is a computer that provides one or more services to other


Note: In the spring of 2014
computers over a network. What services do servers provide? A file server
Microsoft purchased Nokia
stores data files for network-connected users. If a server has one or more print- Corporation’s devices busi-
ers connected to it that it shares with users on the network, it is a print server. ness, including the Lumia
We call a server doing both tasks a file and print server; even though it sounds line of smartphones.
like two services, they combine into one service.
Other services include messaging services (email and fax), Web services,
and many others. It takes specialized software to provide each type of server
service, and complementary client software to request each type of service
over a network. A computer on the user end of these services is a client. Today’s
Note: The focus of this book is on
client computers include the PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones discussed in using common desktop, laptop, and
this book. A server can offer multiple services at the same time while also mobile operating systems. There-
being a client to other servers. fore, it does not include details of
A desktop or laptop computer can act as a server for a few network clients. server operating systems. Nor does
However, a server to which hundreds or thousands of clients must connect it discuss the operating sys-
tems in the various devices
requires much more capable hardware to provide more storage, faster process- included in the Internet of
ing, and faster network access. It also requires specialized software, beginning Things (IoT).
with the operating systems. There are versions of Windows, Apple Mac OS X,
Linux, and UNIX especially designed as servers. The hardware for a high-
quality server can run into the tens of thousands of dollars and upward, versus
the much lower cost of a consumer-grade PC at a few hundred dollars.

Internet of Things. And lastly, microcomputers exist in devices belonging


to the Internet of things (IoT). These are devices we don’t normally think of
as computing devices. They include kitchen appliances, thermostats, utility
meters, components in automobiles, light bulbs, and industrial control
devices. They are not necessarily mobile, but they communicate on networks,
often the Internet. IoT devices are increasingly used in industrial automation,
connecting wirelessly, or via Ethernet, to automation networks.

Functions of Microcomputer Operating Systems


When using her PC at work or her Mac at home our friend Brianna spends
much of her time in a specific application, such as a word processor, a graph-
ical drawing program, or a Web browser. However, she must also perform
tasks outside of these applications, beginning with the simple task of logging
onto the computer, launching an application, and managing files. Since each
type of computer requires different skills to complete tasks, she wants to gain

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a better understanding of the OSs to perform better on the job
Job and be more comfortable working with the different comput
comput-
Management ers. She wants to learn what an OS is and what func func-
User
Interface
tions it performs, which we describe in the following
sections.
When a computer is turned on an operating
Memory
system starts up (or “boots up,” a derivation of
Management
Task the expression “lifting yourself by your own
File
Management bootstraps”). Its main component, the kernel,
Management
remains in memory while the computer is run-
ning, managing low-level (close-to-the-hardware)
Device OS tasks.
Security
Management When a programmer, also known as a “devel-
oper,” writes an application, he or she designs the
application to interact with the operating system and to
make requests for hardware services through the operating system.
To do this, a programmer must write the program to use the correct
The functions of an operating system.
commands to request operating system services. The operating system, in
turn, interacts with the hardware on behalf of the application and fulfills the
requests the application made. An operating system performs several func-
tions. We’ll study them next.

User Interface
The user interface (UI) is the software layer, sometimes called the shell,
through which the user interacts with the OS. The UI includes the command
User processor, which loads programs into memory, as well as the many visual
Interface
components of the operating system (what you see when you look at the dis-
play). On a computer running Linux (without a graphical shell), this visual
component consists of a character-based command line that requires text
input. This is the command-line interface (CLI). Windows and OS X both also
have an optional CLI that runs in a window. Figure 1–2 shows the Windows
10 Command Prompt for the user Jane: white characters against a black screen,
with a blinking cursor waiting for you to type a command at the keyboard. A
cursor in a CLI is merely a marker for the current position where what you
type on the keyboard will appear. Only a limited set of characters can display
on the screen.
To become proficient at working in a CLI, you must memorize the com-
mands and their modifiers and subcommands. On the other hand, Apple’s
OS X, Microsoft’s Windows, and even mobile operating systems each pro-
vides an information-rich graphical user interface (GUI), fully integrated into
FIGURE 1–2 The Windows
Command Prompt.
the operating system. It is through this GUI that you communicate with the
OS and the computer. The GUI offers menus and small graphical icons that
allow you to use a pointing device to select programs to run and to perform
many other tasks, such as opening a word processor file.
Although you do not have to memorize commands, working within a
Note: Although Linux traditionally GUI does require learning the meaning of the various graphical pieces that
had a CLI, most current make up the GUI and how to navigate among them to access your programs
versions of Linux for the
and data. In addition, you must learn how to activate a program (start it run-
desktop come with both
CLIs and GUIs. ning) so that you can get your work or play done. Figure 1–3 shows the Apple
OS X GUI. Notice the icons and other graphical components, such as the bar at
the bottom containing icons for starting apps. Three windows are open on the
desktop. In a GUI you move a graphical pointer around using a pointing
device—usually a mouse, trackball, touch pad, or touch screen. The pointer
allows you to select or manipulate objects in the GUI to accomplish tasks. For
example, to delete an item in OS X, drag it into the Trash, shown on the

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FIGURE 1–3 The OS X GUI.

bottom right of Figure 1–3. By contrast, in a CLI, you would type a command
such as “delete report.txt.”

Job Management
Job management, also known as process scheduler, is an operating system
Job
function that controls the order and time in which programs run. Two exam- Management
ples of programs that may take advantage of this function are a scheduling
program that schedules other programs to run on a certain day and time, and
a print program that manages and prioritizes multiple print jobs.

Task Management
Task management is an operating system function found in multitasking
operating systems. Multitasking implies that a computer is running two
or more programs (tasks) at the same time. In reality, a computer cannot
simultaneously run more tasks than the number of processors that exist Task
Management
within the computer. Until recently, most microcomputers had only a single
processor, so they accomplish multitasking through a scheme that makes
order out of chaos by determining which program responds to the key-
strokes and mouse movements. New processors can have multiple CPUs
within a single chip, so they have true multitasking coexisting with task
switching.
Task management con-
trols the focus (where the sys-
try this!
tem’s attention is at any given View Active Tasks in Windows or OS X
moment). It allows the user to You can see what tasks are running on your Windows or OS X computer.
switch between tasks by giving Try this:
the focus to the application the 1. On a Windows computer with a keyboard, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc
user brings to the foreground. to open Task Manager, a utility that lets you view tasks as running
In graphical operating systems, applications and their processes. Select the Processes tab and notice
the foreground application runs the large number of active processes.
in the current window, the win- 2. On an OS X computer press Command+Spacebar to open the Spot-
dow that is on top of other win- light search box, and then type “activity” and select Activity Moni-
dows on the screen. This window tor from the results list. Notice the list of processes in the
receives input from the keyboard, column labeled Process Name.
mouse, and/or touch screen when

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the user types. While active in memory, a program runs as one or more
small components called processes. The OS’s task management function
manages these processes.

File Management
File management, also referred to as data management, is an operating sys-
tem function that allows the operating system to read, write, and modify data,
while managing the logical storage of the data. Each operating system has at
File
Management least one scheme of logical organization, called a file system. A file system is
the logical structure used on a storage device (hard disk, optical disc, thumb
drive, etc.) for managing and storing files. The file system also includes the
program code that performs these tasks. An operating system uses a technique
called formatting to write the logical structure to a storage device. The operat-
ing system maps the logical organization of the file system to physical locations
on the storage device, most often a conventional hard disk drive or solid-state
drive (SSD), so that it can store and retrieve the data. The logical structure of a
file system stores metadata, which summarizes data to facilitate searches.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) use integrated circuits, which the computer can
write to and read from much faster than conventional hard disk drives and
optical drives. We also call such storage solid-state storage. SSDs come in
many forms, such as a tiny card installed inside the case of your tablet or
smartphone, or a flat device, measuring about ¾ inch by 2 inches (or smaller)
that you plug into a computer’s USB connector. This type of SSD is called a
thumb drive, jump drive, or flash drive.
Normally, a single storage device will have only a single file system, resid-
Note: As a rule, the term
folder is used in a GUI,
ing in an area defined as a partition, but some operating systems allow a stor-
while the term directory age device to have more than one partition. A partition may be an entire drive
is used in a non-GUI volume or just a portion of a drive, and an operating system automatically
operating system. assigns some identifier, such as C for the first hard drive recognized by Win-
dows. Windows follows the drive letter with a colon, so that a complete drive
name is C:. We call this a logical drive.
Within the logical structure of a file system, data is organized into enti-
ties called files that are saved to storage devices. File management also allows
users to organize their files, using other special files that act as containers.
One of these special files, called a folder or directory, can contain lists of files
as well as other folders, along with the physical location of the files and folders.

Device Management
The device management function controls hardware devices by using spe-
cial software called device drivers that are installed in the operating system.
Device Device drivers are unique to the device, and the manufacturer of the device
Management
creates them to work with a specific operating system. For instance, a printer
or video adapter may come with drivers for Windows, OS X, and Linux. The
device driver contains the commands understood by the device and uses
these commands to control the device in response to requests it receives from
the operating system. An operating system needs a component-specific device
driver for each unique hardware component with which it interacts. OSs today
are plug and play (PNP)—they are intelligent enough to detect a device con-
nected by an external port and automatically install the needed device driver.

Memory Memory Management


Management
Memory management is an operating system function that manages the place-
ment of programs and data in memory, while keeping track of where it put
them.

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Virtual Memory. Modern operating systems use a scheme for making opti-
mal use of memory, even allowing more code and data to be in memory
than what the actual physical system memory can hold. Using a memory
management OS component called the virtual memory manager, operat-
ing systems move code and data, as necessary, to a portion of the disk
defined as virtual memory, meaning that this disk space is used as if it were
memory, not just disk storage space. The OS performs this transfer for code
and data that are part of any program that currently does not have the
user’s attention because this information does not have to be kept in RAM
for immediate use, so other programs that do need to use the memory can
do so.

Operating System Memory Limits. We call an operating system that can take
advantage of the addressing and processing features of a processor an x-bit
OS, referring to the number of bits the OS (using the processor) can manipu-
late at once. The PC operating systems of the 1980s and 1990s, PC DOS and
MS-DOS were 16-bit OSs, as was Windows 3.0. Windows 95, Windows 98, and
Windows Millennium edition were really hybrids, with mostly 32-bit pieces
but some 16-bit pieces for downward compatibility. Windows XP had a 64-bit
version, but it was not widely used, and you are unlikely to encounter it. The
Windows versions, OS X, and Linux OSs we discuss in this book are available
in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
All things being equal, the 64-bit version of an operating system will
be faster than its 32-bit counterpart, but the biggest difference between the
32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows is in the number of unique locations
(the address space) a CPU can assign to both system RAM and other RAM
and ROM in your computer. A 64-bit CPU can have a theoretical address
space of 264, or 9.2 quintillion (nine followed by 18 digits). Windows does
not use the maximum theoretical
address space of a CPU, as shown
in Table 1–1. try this!
A 64-bit operating system Are You Running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?
requires 64-bit drivers, and
If you have a Windows computer handy, see if it is running a 32-bit or
some 32-bit applications may not
64-bit version. Try this:
run, although Microsoft sup-
ports older applications in each 1. In the Windows 7 or Windows 10 Start menu Search box (or in the
upgrade of Windows. If you pur- Windows 8.x Start screen) type “system.”
chase a new computer today with 2. In the search results list select “System.” Do not select “System
either Windows or the Mac OS Information.”
preinstalled, it is most likely to 3. This opens Control Panel to the System page.
be a 64-bit OS. Figure 1–4 shows 4. The System Type field will say “32-bit Operating System” or “64-bit
the System type information for Operating System.”
64-bit Windows 10.

TABLE 1–1 Windows Memory Limits


Edition RAM Limit in 32-Bit Version RAM Limit in 64-Bit Version
Windows 7 Home Premium 4 GB 16 GB
Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise/Professional 4 GB 192 GB
Windows 8.x and Windows 10 Home 4 GB 128 GB
Windows 8.x Pro/Enterprise 4 GB 512 GB
Windows 10 Pro/Enterprise/Education 4 GB 2 TB

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Note: The timeline running along
the bottom of the next several
pages shows highlights of
computing history. Some
are described in this
chapter. Many are not.

FIGURE 1–4 Find the operating system type in the System page of Control Panel.

Security Security
The built-in security features of an operating system provide password-
protected authentication of the user before allowing access to the local
computer and may restrict what someone can do on a computer. This

Xerox opens Palo Alto Research


Center (PARC).

Intel creates the 4004


At the Fall Joint Computer processor, leading the
Conference in San Francisco, way to the birth of
Douglas Engelbart of the microcomputer.
Stanford Research Institute
demonstrates the IBM introduces
use of a mouse to move the floppy disk.
a “bug” around a screen.

1968 1970

1969 1973

PARC creates the Altos,


A small group at Bell Labs works the first “personal
on what eventually becomes the computer” with a GUI,
UNIX operating system. laser printer, and
a connection to the
ARPANET is created, the first step first Ethernet network.
in the building of the Internet.
The first portable
telephone handset is
Reprinted with permission of invented at Motorola
Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc. by Dr. Martin Cooper.

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protects the computer and the data it contains from unauthorized access.
For example, Rachel is the accounting clerk in a small company. She has
confidential information on her computer, and she doesn’t want just
anyone to be able to walk up to her computer and access the informa-
tion stored there. Rachel can set up her computer so that anyone getting
into it must log on with a user name and password from a user account.
A user account includes, at minimum, a name and an associated pass-
word stored inside the PC. Security is a large topic—one that would take
many books and weeks of your time to really master—but to go much
farther in this book without addressing computer security would be fool-
ish, so Chapter 2 is devoted to computer security basics. There you will
learn about threats to computers, what security is built in to the operat-
ing systems discussed in this book, and the steps you can take to protect
yourself from threats.
Note: The MITS Altair 8800 was
an important predecessor to the

l Yesterday’s Operating Systems


Apple II, TRS-80, and PET comput-
LO 1.2 ers. Although featured in a cover
article of the January 1975 issue of
Sometimes people think that they can simply take the newest and best Popular Mechanics, it was not for
computer or other gadget and make it work without understanding any- everyday use. Whether you bought
thing about how it came to be. Well, they probably can. But they probably the $395 kit or the fully assembled
can’t fix it, modify it, or use it effectively without understanding how $495 version, the input method
was switches that you flipped to
and why it came to be in the form it’s in now. One really can’t under-
program it, and the result of these
stand current PC technology without having a grasp of older PC technol- efforts (the output) was a pattern
ogy. In other words, studying history is important to understand how of blinking lights. As a portent of
we arrived at today. We’ll begin with UNIX, arguably the oldest OS still the future, the Altair 8800 gave Bill
in use today, with beginnings that predate microcomputers. Then we’ll Gates and Paul Allen their very
first sale of a ROM-based
explore the history of computers leading to today’s PCs and Mac desktop
interpreter for the BASIC
computers and the operating systems that evolved for each of these hard- programming language.
ware platforms.

Apple I computer is released. Steve Jobs and


Intel releases the
8088 processor. John Torode and Stephen Wozniak
Gary Kildall found Apple
introduce the Computer.
microcomputer
disk operating
system CP/M.

1974 1976

1975 1977

Bill Gates and Paul Allen write Apple II is


the BASIC programming language introduced
for the MITS Altair. at the
West Coast
Bell Labs releases UNIX Computer Faire.
Popular Electronics version 6, distributed via
introduces the government and commercial
Commodore
MITS Altair 8800 licenses and inexpensive
PET is Bill Gates (bottom left) and
in a cover story. academic licenses.
introduced. Paul Allen (bottom right) found Microsoft.

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UNIX—The Operating System for All Platforms
UNIX has a longer history than any other popular operating system, and it
is still in use today. In fact, Apple’s Mac OS X is a certified UNIX operating
system. UNIX grew out of an operating system developed for an early Digi-
tal Equipment Corporation (DEC) computer and went through several gen-
erations of changes before it emerged from the Bell Labs Computing Science
Research Center (Bell Labs) as UNIX version 6 in 1975, a portable operating
system for minicomputers and mainframe computers. A portable operating
system is one that you can use on a variety of computer system platforms,
with only minor alterations required to be compatible with the underlying
architecture. Minicomputers and mainframe computers allowed multiple
remote users to connect and use the computer’s resources, and UNIX sup-
ported the time-sharing and multitasking features that made this possible.
The University of California at Berkeley licensed UNIX, modified it,
and distributed it to other schools as Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)
version 4.2. Later versions followed. The schools paid licensing fees to Bell
Labs. Students and others improved on and added to UNIX, freely sharing their
try this! code with each other. This tradition
still prevails today with such ver-
Research the History of UNIX
sions of UNIX as FreeBSD, NetBSD,
Learn more about the UNIX operating system. OpenBSD, and OpenSolaris. Com-
Try this: mercial versions of UNIX today
1. Point your browser to www.unix.org. include AIX, OpenServer (derived
2. Explore the links on this page to learn more about the history of from SCO UNIX), and HP/UX.
UNIX. Today UNIX is still used on very
3. Select the What is UNIX link and then select the History and Timeline large computer systems (referred to
link to read a more complete history of this OS. as mainframes) and less commonly
4. Look in the timeline for a current OS, featured in this book, that is on Intel desktop systems, as well as
certified to UNIX 03. on a variety of midsize computers.
Versions of UNIX run on many of

Apple Computer introduces Sony and Philips develop


floppy disk drives for the Apple II. first technology standards
for compact disc.
Bell Labs releases
UNIX version 7.
Microsoft announces
UC Berkeley Microsoft XENIX OS,
develops Berkeley Software a UNIX OS for 16-bit
Distribution (BSD) UNIX. microprocessors.

1978 1980
1979 1981

Steve Jobs visits Xerox Adam Osborne introduces


PARC, sees the Osborne 1.
demos of a GUI, icons,
and a mouse. The word Internet is used
for the first time to
MicroPro International describe the ARPANET.
introduces WordStar, the
VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet first commercially successful IBM introduces the IBM PC
program to run on a personal word processing program with Microsoft’s BASIC in
computer, is released. for microcomputers. ROM and PC-DOS 1.0.

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the world’s Internet servers. Most versions of UNIX also offer several different
user interfaces. Some use character mode, like the traditional shells, such as the
Bourne shell and the C shell. Others use a graphical interface such as GNOME
or KDE. As mentioned earlier, Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is based on a
version of UNIX, and it has a graphical user interface.
Even fierce UNIX advocates do not see UNIX taking over the desktop any
time soon. However, it is very secure and stable. Versions of UNIX run on
many of the world’s Internet servers.

The Evolution of Desktop Operating Systems


The complex and powerful operating system like what you see on your
desktop, laptop, or mobile devices didn’t just magically pop into someone’s
head. An operating system as a separate entity didn’t exist in the early years
of digital computing (defined roughly as from World War II into the 1950s).
Each computer was dedicated to a single purpose, such as performing trajec-
tory calculations for weapons or mathematical analysis for a science lab, in
addition to the system I/O functions. Loading a new program into a computer
was a time-consuming process, and the software had to include system func-
tions as well as the main purpose of the computer.

Small Steps
Operating systems evolved through many small steps over several decades,
some in the form of technical advances and others in evolutionary changes in
how people used computers, especially as they saw the need to use computers
as multipurpose devices. The “user,” at first a government agency, research
institute, or large business, would define the computer’s purpose at any
given time by the program chosen to run. In the 1950s, some early “operat-
ing systems” managed data storage on tape for mainframe computers, but it
was much more common for application programmers to write system I/O

TCP/IP becomes the network Apple Computer releases the The 3½-inch floppy drives
protocol standard for the Internet. “Fat Mac” with 512K of memory. are introduced.

Apple introduces the Lisa, the


first commercial computer with Apple Computer
a purely graphical operating IBM introduces
releases the
system and a mouse. Satellite Software the PC-AT
Macintosh with
International (SSI) with PC-DOS 3.0.
the Mac OS 1.
Mitch Kapor announces Lotus introduces
1-2-3 spreadsheet application WordPerfect.
for the IBM-PC.

1982 1984

1983

Microsoft introduces Lotus 1-2-3 sells more than


the Microsoft mouse for 200,000 copies the first year.
the IBM PC and compatibles.
Bell Labs releases UNIX System V,
Microsoft and IBM introduce release 2 through commercial licenses.
PC DOS 2.0 to support the
20 MB hard drive Motorola introduces the DynaTAC
of the IBM PC-XT. 800X mobile phone (the size and
approximate weight of a brick).

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routines (the stuff of today’s OSs) right into their programs. By the mid-1960s,
as disk systems became more common on large computers, we needed oper-
ating systems to manage these disks and to perform other common system-
level routines.
The computer enthusiasts who bought the earliest microcomputers of
the 1970s, such as the MITS Altair 8800, were infatuated with the technol-
ogy. What we now consider slow CPU speeds, very limited memory, clumsy
I/O devices, and lack of software was exciting and new technology at the
time. They would network with like-minded people, have informal meetings
and discussions, and then gather in self-help groups and form clubs such as
the Home Brew Computer Club in California’s Silicon Valley. They shared
their techniques for creating hardware and programming language soft-
ware for these computers. Almost every one of these early microcomputers
exceeded the expectations of their makers and users, but before long, and for
a variety of reasons, most of the early entrepreneurial companies and their
products disappeared.

Software Versions
A software version is a unique level of an operating system. When a soft-
ware publisher creates an entirely new OS, they give it a version number,
usually 1.0. Software publishers constantly receive feedback from custom-
ers about problems and the need for additional features in each OS. In
response, a publisher often introduces a modified version of the original
product, in which case the number to the right of the decimal point will
probably change (say, from version 1.0 to version 1.1—people often abbre-
viate version as simply “v”). An entirely new version number (2.0, 3.0, . . .)
generally reflects an important change to an OS with major changes to the
core components of the operating system as well as a distinctive and unify-
ing look to the GUI.

Microsoft ships the first version Hewlett-Packard Microsoft and IBM announce
of Microsoft Windows. introduces the OS/2, a character-mode OS
LaserJet laser printer. written for the Intel 80286.
IBM introduces its Video
Intel releases the 80386 Graphics Array (VGA)
processor (also called monitor.
the 386).
IBM unveils the new PS/2
Bell Labs releases UNIX line of computers, featuring
version 8 to universities. a 20-MHz 80386 processor.

1985 1987

1986

Microsoft ships
Windows/286 1.03.

Bell Labs releases


UNIX version
9 to universities.
IBM introduces the PC Convertible
computer, the first Intel-based
computer with a 3½-inch
floppy disk drive.

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The Killer App for the Apple II
For a microcomputer to truly become a successful, widely accepted product—
used in businesses as well as by hobbyists—it had to be a tool that performed
an important task; it had to have an application that many people needed
enough to purchase a computer. We call that application a killer app.
One of these important tasks was spreadsheet calculations. Before micro-
computers, people created spreadsheets manually, on large sheets of paper.
They would enter a column of numbers—say, sales for one product in a drug-
store—day-by-day for a month. Then they would add up the daily columns to
get the total sales for that product for that month. The next column was for the
next product, and so on. The process was tedious and error prone, but very
valuable to the manager of the drugstore.
Thus, when VisiCalc, an electronic spreadsheet program, appeared it
became a very successful application. It automated this thankless job, remem-
bered the formulas for the calculations, and allowed people to recalculate a
whole column of numbers after a single change was made. VisiCalc did more
than this. It gave people a reason to want a personal computer. Many people
were introduced to VisiCalc on the Apple II computer (running the Apple OS),
and this contributed to the success of the Apple II in the late 1970s. However,
as the 1980s arrived, Apple failed to come out with a successor to the Apple
II in a timely fashion. So, when IBM introduced the IBM PC in 1981, the mar-
ket was ready for a new microcomputer and VisiCalc was modified to run
on the IBM PC, but VisiCalc wasn’t the real killer app for this new type of
microcomputer.
Note: Want to learn more about
The IBM PC Operating System the early history of PCs? Our favor-
Another fateful series of events revolved around the choice of an OS for the ite book on the subject is Fire
in the Valley: The Making
IBM PC. IBM representatives came to Microsoft, then a fledgling software
of the Personal Computer
company, for the Microsoft BASIC interpreter, which other machines were (ISBN 0-07-135892-7).
using at that time. The result of that visit was that IBM licensed Microsoft’s

IBM and Microsoft release Motorola announces its 32-bit


OS/2 1.1, adding a GUI to their microprocessor, the 68040.
first multitasking desktop
operating system. “Internet Worm” virus invades Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.
Internet, disables 10 percent of
all Internet host computers.

NeXT, Inc. unveils the NeXT


computer, featuring a 25-MHz
Motorola 68030 processor.

1988 1990

1989 1991

Bell Labs releases UNIX Tim Berners-Lee develops Microsoft releases Apple Computer launches
version 10 to universities. HTML, the foundation MS-DOS 5.0. the PowerBook series
for the World Wide Web. of portable computers.
Intel releases the 80486 chip Linus Torvalds
(also called the 486). creates Linux, Apple releases
a free UNIX-like Macintosh System 7.0.
operating system for
the Intel platform. Internet opened to
commercial use.

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try this! BASIC interpreter and installed it
in the ROM of the IBM PC. The
Watch Old TV Commercials for the IBM PC and Lotus 1-2-3 IBM folks also talked to Bill Gates
It has been over 30 years since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981 about providing an OS; but he did
and the killer app Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983. See how these products were not have one, and so he sent them
introduced to the public in TV advertisements. Try this: to another company, Digital
Research, the creators of the then-
1. Point your browser to
popular CP/M OS. Digital
http://mentalfloss.com/article/48627/lotus-1-2-3-three-decades
Research, however, refused to sign
2. Read the article and watch the first two videos. Some of us can ver- a contract with IBM, so the IBM
ify the accuracy of the portrayal of office workers at the time (except guys went back to Bill Gates for the
for the singing and dancing part). OS. Consequently, Microsoft
3. The third video is no longer available. bought an OS from another com-
4. The fourth video reviews the history of Lotus 1-2-3 with great clips pany, and this was the basis of the
of the news coverage and events and people behind the product. first versions of IBM PC DOS.
The IBM PC far exceeded IBM’s
sales forecast, which was for about
a quarter of a million units during the predicted five-year lifetime of the prod-
uct. According to one account, IBM took orders for half a million computers
in the first few days after introducing the IBM PC. At first many enthusiasts
bought it despite its roughly $5,000 price tag for a typical configuration. The
IBM logo on the product also inspired many business users to buy it because
this implied that it was a serious business computer.

The Killer App for PCs


Although many say that just having the letters IBM on the box was what
sold that computer, the groundwork laid by VisiCalc was for what was
arguably the second killer app, Lotus 1-2-3 by Lotus Corporation. Introduced
in 1983, this spreadsheet application ran on the DOS operating system and
used all of the 640KB of memory available to software (OS plus application)

Yahoo! is born in Netscape Communications


Microsoft releases Windows a trailer on releases Netscape Navigator.
3.1, the first widely accepted the Stanford
version of Windows. University campus.
IBM releases OS/2 2.0, the
first 32-bit OS for PCs. IBM releases OS/2 Warp
(OS/2 version 3).
Microsoft releases Windows
for Workgroups 3.1, with Microsoft releases
integrated support for MS-DOS 6.22
networking. and Windows NT 3.5.

1992 1994

1993 1995

Microsoft releases The National Center Intel releases the Pentium


MS-DOS 6.0. for Supercomputing Pro microprocessor.
Applications (NCSA)
Apple introduces the develops Mosaic, the Motorola releases the
Newton MessagePad, first Web browser. PowerPC 604 chip.
a handheld device with a
Microsoft releases stylus for use on the IBM introduces the Sun Microsystems creates
the first version of touch screen. Simon smartphone. the Java development
Microsoft ships Windows 95.
Windows NT (3.1). It runs the Newton OS. language.

16 SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

hol18633_ch01_001-038.indd 16 12/4/15 12:12 PM


on the IBM PC. Both the Lotus 1-2-3 program and the spreadsheet were in
Note: Through the 1980s,
memory while the user worked. It was very fast compared to VisiCalc, which PCs with DOS and a variety of
was written to run under the CP/M OS and designed to use much less mem- DOS applications made great
ory. Lotus 1-2-3 had additional features, including database functions and a inroads into organizations of all
program that could create and print graphs from the spreadsheet data. sizes. In the decade after its intro-
Lotus 1-2-3 was the real killer app, the software that made the IBM PC and duction, thousands of applications
were written for DOS, but Lotus
PC DOS a must-have combination for people who worked all day crunching 1-2-3, dBase (database manage-
numbers and doing what-if calculations. ment), and WordPerfect (word
processing) were the de facto
business standards at the end
Apple OS
of that decade. All contributed
In 1976, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak—two friends working out of a to the mass adoption of
garage—founded Apple Computer, based on their first computer, the Apple PCs at work, at school,
I. Their real notoriety began in 1977 when they introduced the Apple II at and at home.
the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. This created interest in the
brand, and the addition of disk drives in 1978 made it a sought-after product
for the technically adventurous consumer. But the OS for the Apple computers
at this point did not have a GUI interface—that showed up on the short-lived
Apple Lisa computer.
In 1982 Apple introduced the Lisa, the first commercially available com-
puter with a purely graphical operating system—and a mouse. However, this
computer lacked something very important for consumers—applications. It
was unsuccessful, and Apple’s own Macintosh computer, released in 1984,
overshadowed the Lisa and marked the beginning of consumer excitement
and the near-cult following of the Apple computer products. The Macintosh
came with Mac OS System 1, a GUI operating system that used a mouse. Apple
improved the Mac OS over the years to include many easy-to-use features.
The final release of the classic Mac OS family was Mac OS 9, introduced
in 1999. With its roots in the original 1984 OS, Apple revised and improved the
operating system to support multiple users, but it was weak in memory man-
agement and full multitasking. In 2001 it was replaced by a completely new

IBM releases OS/2 Warp 4, Intel releases


which can simultaneously Pentium II chip.
IBM releases OS/2 Warp connect to almost any Microsoft releases
Server, an OS for network network server. Windows 98.
servers.
U.S. Robotics Apple Sergey Brin and Larry
Apple Computer buys NeXT. releases the Computer Page found Google.
PalmPilot releases
Microsoft releases Windows personal digital the iMac.
NT Workstation 4.0. assistant running
the Palm OS.

1996 1998

1997

Digital Video/Versatile Disc


(DVD) technology is introduced.
Mac OS 8 ships.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Operating Systems 17

hol18633_ch01_001-038.indd 17 12/4/15 12:12 PM


operating system—Mac OS X, based on UNIX. There is a brief overview of OS
X later in this chapter and more detail on this OS in Chapter 8.

MS-DOS
DOS, which stands for “disk operating system,” provides support for interac-
tion, or input and output (I/O), between the memory and disk drives. It is a
single-tasking OS with very limited memory support, no support for virtual
memory, no native GUI, and no built-in security function. PC DOS is the ver-
sion for IBM computers. MS-DOS refers to the several versions of DOS devel-
oped by Microsoft and made available to non-IBM PC manufacturers. Each
major version of DOS was released to support new disk capacities. PC DOS
1.0 supported single-sided 5¼-inch floppies; PC DOS 1.1 added support for
double-sided 5¼-inch floppies; and PC DOS 2.0, released with the IBM PC-XT,
included support for the XT’s 10MB hard drives. PC DOS 3.0 was released
with the IBM PC-AT and included support for the larger AT hard drives. Sup-
port for 3½-inch floppies and the larger hard drives of the IBM PS-2 comput-
ers were added in PC DOS 4.0. MS-DOS 6.22 was the last widely used version
of MS-DOS. Some forms of DOS are now available from third-party sources,
but these sources are dwindling.
DOS has a text-mode command-line interface that requires users to
remember cryptic commands and their subcommands to perform file man-
agement functions and to launch DOS applications. Figure 1–5 shows a good
example of how cryptic DOS can be to the uninitiated.
Although you will not find DOS as the preferred OS on desktop computers,
Note: Many of us still open a
command line interface (CLI) in you might find a variation of it as the OS on some handheld devices that do
Windows to use certain advanced not require a GUI interface. In the past, computer professionals often found
troubleshooting tools. There DOS handy as a very small OS that fit on a floppy disk, to which they added
are two CLIs that come with various utilities for troubleshooting computers. This practice has disap-
Windows: the Command
peared today, as have floppy disks and floppy disk drives. Those same techs
Prompt and the Windows
Power Shell. are now more likely to carry either optical discs or a flash drive loaded with
specialized software for their work.
Microsoft releases
Windows XP 64-Bit edition
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Microsoft releases Windows XP. for Itanium systems.
releases the Athlon CPU, which
surpasses Intel Pentium III’s Apple releases Mac
clock speed. OS X (10.0).

Intel unveils the Pentium Apple releases


III processor. Mac OS X (10.1).

1999 2001

2000 2002

First large-scale denial-of- Approximately 1 billion PCs


service attacks shut down sold since the advent of PCs.
major websites, including
Yahoo!, eBay, and Buy.com.
Apple releases
Mac OS X
Jaguar (10.2).
Microsoft introduces Windows
2000 and Windows Me.

18 SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

hol18633_ch01_001-038.indd 18 12/4/15 12:12 PM


FIGURE 1–5 The MS-DOS prompt showing the Format command and the resulting
output to the screen.

OS/2
In 1987, Microsoft and IBM introduced their jointly developed Operating Sys-
tem/2 (OS/2), intended to replace DOS. However, version 1.0 was written for the
Intel 80286 processor, which had serious memory and operating limits. Despite
the memory limits, OS/2 required much more memory and disk space (2MB of
memory and 8MB of disk space) than either PC DOS or MS-DOS. This was at a
time when 2MB of memory and a 40MB hard drive (considered large in the late
1980s) cost several thousand dollars. Although the first version of OS/2 could
multitask applications in memory, it did not have a GUI, and only one application
could be visible on the screen at a time. Also, people had to write applications
specifically for OS/2, because it had very limited support for DOS applications.

First computer infected


with the Spybot worm.
Apple releases Mac
Microsoft releases OS X Tiger (10.4). IBM ends all sales
Windows Server 2003. Apple and support of OS/2.
releases
The Slammer worm infects Mac OS X Apple announces switch
hundreds of thousands Panther to Intel platform.
of computers in under (10.3).
three hours. YouTube founded.

2003 2005

2004 2006

Microsoft releases The Blu-ray high-definition Toshiba releases


Service Pack 2 for optical disc standard is an HD DVD player
Windows XP, Google announces Gmail. announced. (in Japan).
with important
security updates. First known cell phone Apple announces
virus discovered. Boot Camp, which
IBM agrees to sell allows users to run
its PC business Microsoft releases Windows on their Macs.
to Lenovo Group Windows XP Media
Ltd. of China. Center Edition 2005.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Operating Systems 19

hol18633_ch01_001-038.indd 19 12/4/15 12:12 PM


In the 1990s, IBM introduced OS/2 Warp, a greatly improved version of
OS/2 with a very nice GUI. After about 18 months, however, IBM retreated
from the battle for the desktop and targeted sales of OS/2 Warp to the high-
end server market. It never rivaled Windows or UNIX in terms of sales. In
2003, IBM announced it would not develop any future versions of OS/2, and
in December 2004 IBM sold its PC division to China-based Lenovo Group. In
2005 they discontinued support for OS/2.
Note: Although OS/2 was not
a success in terms of sales, an
April 2, 2012, article by Harry Microsoft Windows
McCracken, “25 Years of IBM’s
OS/2: The Strange Days and Sur-
We’ll begin our discussion of Windows by explaining Windows versions and
prising Afterlife of a Legendary editions, and then briefly go through the versions in chronological order.
Operating System” at techland.
Time.com reported that OS/2 was Windows Versions and Editions. A Microsoft Windows version sometimes
still used on some New York has a simple ordinal number, as in Windows 1 or Windows 2 (versions from
City subway system servers
and on some supermarket
the 1980s). Then some sub-versions appeared, such as Windows 3.1. In the
checkout systems. mid-1990s, Microsoft moved away from the old convention and modified the
names of several OSs to coincide with the calendar year of release, as in Win-
dows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000. Then it created names such as Win-
dows XP and Windows Vista, but underneath it all Microsoft still maintained
a numeric version number.
Then there is the issue of editions. In recent years, each version of Micro-
soft Windows included separate products, each called an edition. Just a
sampling of edition names includes Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ulti-
mate, Windows 8.1 Pro, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise. The differences among
the editions for the same version are in the features. The more feature-rich
editions cost more. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll start our dis-
cussion of yesterday’s Windows with the first version and make our way to
Windows Vista. Then we will pick up the discussion of Today’s Desktop OSs
with Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Apple releases Mac OS X


Apple introduces the iPhone. Microsoft releases Windows 7. Snow Leopard (10.6).

Apple releases Mac OS X The One Laptop Per Microsoft releases Microsoft
Leopard (10.5). Child (OLPC) computer ships. Security Essentials, MSE.

Microsoft releases Windows Apple drops “Computer” Apple removes support for
Vista to retail. from the company’s name. AppleTalk in its products.

2007 2009

2008 2010

Blu-ray Disc becomes


the winning standard for
Apple introduces the
high-definition optical
iPad tablet computer.
media and drives.

Apple introduces a new Apple introduces


line of iMac computers. the iPhone 4.

20 SURVEY OF OPERATING SYSTEMS

hol18633_ch01_001-038.indd 20 12/4/15 12:13 PM


Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least


the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,


some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR


MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO


This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second


showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I


came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE


FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE


BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE


LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI


Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK


BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT


SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA


To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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