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"... 5 years from now everyone will be running free GNU on their 200 MIPS, 64M SPARCstation-5." - Andrew Tanenbaum arguing with Linus Torvalds in 1992 that Lin

"... 5 years from now everyone will be running free GNU on their 200 MIPS, 64M SPARCstation-5." - Andrew Tanenbaum arguing with Linus Torvalds in 1992 that Linux was obsolete because it was (at the time) built only for x86, and that x86 was dead.

gjsman-1000 5y ago
For reference as to how certain Tanenbaum was that x86 was dead, he also remarked in that debate that if Linus Torvalds was his student, "Writing a new OS only for the 386 in 1991 gets you your second 'F' for this term. But if you do real well on the final exam, you can still pass the course." Turns out x86 had at least 30 years and counting of life left in it, regardless of what the academics thought...
- etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
  Also, Linux became highly portable. So I think Linux would pass with better than an F.
simmerup 5y ago
A nice reminder of the difference between talkers and makers
- majou 5y ago
  Tanenbaum made MINIX, ironically the OS inside every Intel chip.
  - gjsman-1000 5y ago
    That's the cruelest irony about this whole thing. The guy who lambasted Torvalds because x86 was dead gets his OS in almost every new x86 chip, 25 years later. That's hilarious.
oynqr 5y ago
Tanenbaum is well known for his great opinions, on anything, really.
mhh__ 5y ago
There are elements of Intel being good, and Intel's competitors being useless here, it's not solely technical e.g. It was before my time, but it seems like DEC had a good product in the Alpha but were utterly unable to capitalize on it like Intel were able to - similarly with other RISCs. It may also be of note that guesstimates from that era to the early 2000s were usually wildly wrong. Some compiler books from the era say, "Of course, we can count on a [large]% speed increase per-year". https://www.anandtech.com/show/680/6 https://www.anandtech.com/show/680/6 Intel (apparently) thought they would have 10GHz by 2005!!!!

gjsman-1000 5y ago

For reference as to how certain Tanenbaum was that x86 was dead, he also remarked in that debate that if Linus Torvalds was his student, "Writing a new OS only for the 386 in 1991 gets you your second 'F' for this term. But if you do real well on the final exam, you can still pass the course." Turns out x86 had at least 30 years and counting of life left in it, regardless of what the academics thought...

etaioinshrdlu 5y ago
Also, Linux became highly portable. So I think Linux would pass with better than an F.

simmerup 5y ago

A nice reminder of the difference between talkers and makers

majou 5y ago
Tanenbaum made MINIX, ironically the OS inside every Intel chip.
- gjsman-1000 5y ago
  That's the cruelest irony about this whole thing. The guy who lambasted Torvalds because x86 was dead gets his OS in almost every new x86 chip, 25 years later. That's hilarious.

oynqr 5y ago

Tanenbaum is well known for his great opinions, on anything, really.

mhh__ 5y ago

There are elements of Intel being good, and Intel's competitors being useless here, it's not solely technical e.g. It was before my time, but it seems like DEC had a good product in the Alpha but were utterly unable to capitalize on it like Intel were able to - similarly with other RISCs. It may also be of note that guesstimates from that era to the early 2000s were usually wildly wrong. Some compiler books from the era say, "Of course, we can count on a [large]% speed increase per-year". https://www.anandtech.com/show/680/6 https://www.anandtech.com/show/680/6 Intel (apparently) thought they would have 10GHz by 2005!!!!