6 ms·

Thompson, Ritchie and Kernighan admit that Unix was a prank (1989)

57 points by imran3740 6y ago

variaga 6y ago
The copyright on the page says 2013, but I think this was actually written in 1989 ("20 years ago", "1969")
- variaga 6y ago
  also really classy to put their own copyright notice on a document "found on usenet and the author could not be determined"
  - djsumdog 6y ago
    probably just a standard footer that wraps everything
    - variaga 6y ago
      Yeah, probably, but that still doesn't make it right.
- dang 6y ago
  Nice. I found https://web.archive.org/web/19991009073514/http://www.stokely.com/lighter.side/unix.prank.html https://web.archive.org/web/19991009073514/http://www.stokel... but clear cues in the text are always better. Edit: hmm. They say over 20 years. That probably means later than 1989 but not 1999.
- aaron695 6y ago
  1991 http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.79.html http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.79.html Not sure if it was joking about being from computerworld? It's not in this edition - https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sXM8jj29gfIC https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sXM8jj29gfIC Conspiracy -- Linus started Linux as an April fools joke from this April fools joke. "This has been brewing since april 1991" https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/524692/linus_torvalds_celebrates_22_years_linux_nostalgic_message https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/524692/linus_torvalds...
draw_down 6y ago
Come on
ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago
> This piece was found on Usenet. This is fiction, not reality. Always remember that this is not true. It's really a joke, right? -- Editor
- djsumdog 6y ago
  Nah, I refuse to believe it. Death to the author. Poe's Law and all that.
java-man 6y ago
"At one time, we joked about selling this to the Soviets to set their computer science progress back 20 or more years." Hilarious. Ended up selling it to everybody. But seriously, given the long history of failures (i.e. search CVE database for buffer overflow), this joke does read like a true story.
kickingvegas 6y ago
I'll always remember a backhanded remark Mary Shaw (https://www.isri.cmu.edu/people/core-faculty/shaw-mary.html https://www.isri.cmu.edu/people/core-faculty/shaw-mary.html) made about AT&T Bell Labs at a talk she gave about Computer Architecture as the "New Jersey School of Computation."
User23 6y ago
This looks like a good place to link the Unix Hater’s Handbook[1] [1] https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf
- djsumdog 6y ago
  360 pages?!
  - gowld 6y ago
    It's Volume 1.
dylan604 6y ago
"Two of the most famous products of Berkeley are LSD and Unix. I don’t think that is a coincidence." Nice. Does this mean to be a successful Unix Admin you also need to be an accomplished psychonaut?
dennis_jeeves 6y ago
>Dennis Ritchie said: "What really tore it (just when ADA was catching on), was that Bjarne Stroustrup caught onto our joke Lol.

57 points by imran3740 6y ago

variaga 6y ago

The copyright on the page says 2013, but I think this was actually written in 1989 ("20 years ago", "1969")

variaga 6y ago
also really classy to put their own copyright notice on a document "found on usenet and the author could not be determined"
- djsumdog 6y ago
  probably just a standard footer that wraps everything
  - variaga 6y ago
    Yeah, probably, but that still doesn't make it right.
dang 6y ago
Nice. I found https://web.archive.org/web/19991009073514/http://www.stokely.com/lighter.side/unix.prank.html https://web.archive.org/web/19991009073514/http://www.stokel... but clear cues in the text are always better. Edit: hmm. They say over 20 years. That probably means later than 1989 but not 1999.
aaron695 6y ago
1991 http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.79.html http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/11.79.html Not sure if it was joking about being from computerworld? It's not in this edition - https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sXM8jj29gfIC https://books.google.com.au/books?id=sXM8jj29gfIC Conspiracy -- Linus started Linux as an April fools joke from this April fools joke. "This has been brewing since april 1991" https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/524692/linus_torvalds_celebrates_22_years_linux_nostalgic_message https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/524692/linus_torvalds...

draw_down 6y ago

Come on

ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago

> This piece was found on Usenet. This is fiction, not reality. Always remember that this is not true. It's really a joke, right? -- Editor

djsumdog 6y ago
Nah, I refuse to believe it. Death to the author. Poe's Law and all that.

java-man 6y ago

"At one time, we joked about selling this to the Soviets to set their computer science progress back 20 or more years." Hilarious. Ended up selling it to everybody. But seriously, given the long history of failures (i.e. search CVE database for buffer overflow), this joke does read like a true story.

kickingvegas 6y ago

I'll always remember a backhanded remark Mary Shaw (https://www.isri.cmu.edu/people/core-faculty/shaw-mary.html https://www.isri.cmu.edu/people/core-faculty/shaw-mary.html) made about AT&T Bell Labs at a talk she gave about Computer Architecture as the "New Jersey School of Computation."

User23 6y ago

This looks like a good place to link the Unix Hater’s Handbook[1] [1] https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf

djsumdog 6y ago
360 pages?!
- gowld 6y ago
  It's Volume 1.

dylan604 6y ago

"Two of the most famous products of Berkeley are LSD and Unix. I don’t think that is a coincidence." Nice. Does this mean to be a successful Unix Admin you also need to be an accomplished psychonaut?

dennis_jeeves 6y ago

>Dennis Ritchie said: "What really tore it (just when ADA was catching on), was that Bjarne Stroustrup caught onto our joke Lol.