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Theres a decent point in here, but the examples given are far less convincing than the author seems to think. > C/Unix developed to improve global telephony (

Theres a decent point in here, but the examples given are far less convincing than the author seems to think. > C/Unix developed to improve global telephony (important) > the world of businessy/officy/enterprisey software (Windows, VB, Java, C#, ASP) Perhaps "unimportant" to the author but most of these were aimed at multimillionaire sales contracts or major consumer sales (important). Its a categorical difference from a "small side project" (e.g. Python, Linux, etc.) of a solo author, and not really beneficial to his point.

chubot 6y ago
No, C and Unix were not developed to improve global telephony. Part of the story is that Ken Thompson wanted to play a video game. This is documented in a number of places https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) As a part of porting the game to the PDP-7, Thompson developed his own operating system, which later formed the core of the Unix operating system. Multics was closer to something "important", while Unix was something unimportant and a great example of the principle laid out in the article. Also, the first application of Unix beyond Bell Labs was typesetting. They were using it to produce patent applications, saving the labor of many secretaries. It was not used for telephony. C was co-evolved with Unix as portable language to write an OS in. --- edit: For some color on how Bell Labs related to the rest of the org, I recommend "The Idea Factory" by Gertner and Brian Kernighan's recent memoir on Unix.
- ssalazar 6y ago
  Gotcha, that’s an interesting history and the additional context definitely illustrates the authors point.
beervirus 6y ago
Spying on users and getting ads in front of their eyeballs is also a business worth a lot of dollars. That doesn't make it important or beneficial.

chubot 6y ago

No, C and Unix were not developed to improve global telephony. Part of the story is that Ken Thompson wanted to play a video game. This is documented in a number of places https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Travel_(video_game) As a part of porting the game to the PDP-7, Thompson developed his own operating system, which later formed the core of the Unix operating system. Multics was closer to something "important", while Unix was something unimportant and a great example of the principle laid out in the article. Also, the first application of Unix beyond Bell Labs was typesetting. They were using it to produce patent applications, saving the labor of many secretaries. It was not used for telephony. C was co-evolved with Unix as portable language to write an OS in. --- edit: For some color on how Bell Labs related to the rest of the org, I recommend "The Idea Factory" by Gertner and Brian Kernighan's recent memoir on Unix.

ssalazar 6y ago
Gotcha, that’s an interesting history and the additional context definitely illustrates the authors point.

beervirus 6y ago

Spying on users and getting ads in front of their eyeballs is also a business worth a lot of dollars. That doesn't make it important or beneficial.