ITS /I-T-S/ n.
1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential though
highly idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-6s and
PDP-10s at MIT and long used at the MIT AI Lab. Much AI-hacker
jargon derives from ITS folklore, and to have been `an ITS
hacker' qualifies one instantly as an old-timer of the most
venerable sort. ITS pioneered many important innovations,
including transparent file sharing between machines and
terminal-independent I/O. After about 1982, most actual work was
shifted to newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run
essentially as a hobby and service to the hacker community. The
shutdown of the lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end
of an era and sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide (see
high moby). 2. A mythical image
of operating-system perfection worshiped by a bizarre, fervent
retro-cult of old-time hackers and ex-users (see troglodyte, sense 2). ITS worshipers manage
somehow to continue believing that an OS maintained by
assembly-language hand-hacking that supported only monocase
6-character filenames in one directory per account remains
superior to today's state of commercial art (their venom against
Unix is particularly intense). See
also holy wars, Weenix.