Is the "dark and stormy lab" in which Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson developed Unix still in existence and preserved as of the end of 2017?
I might take a trip to USA someday and go visit that lab. Better than some museums for me I would guess.
The original quote is from the book "Sam's Teach yourself Unix in 24 hours":
It all started back in the late 1960s in a dark and stormy laboratory deep in the recesses of the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) corporate facility in New Jersey.
The Murray-Hill site in New Jersey is still in existence (it’s part of Nokia Bell Labs now), but I doubt the Unix lab is preserved. You can visit the Bell Labs Technology Showcase, but that’s a museum on the site, not the original offices.
I’m quite certain there are some museums in the US which you’d find interesting. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is very, very interesting, not just for its exhibits, but also because they organise events quite regularly, have great guided tours (led by people who lived through what they’re talking about), some working computers, and you’re likely to bump in to interesting people there (including original Unix developers). Another great museum is the Living Computers museum in Seattle, whose specificity is that the exhibits are in working condition. If you’re ever in San Francisco when Jason Scott’s organising a visit, it’s well worth tagging along for a tour of the Internet Archive. The list goes on...
There are also many, many “hidden” computer history museums around the US, but you’ll find out about those by taking part in the communities and getting to know their owners.
