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Link for anyone looking for the Unix haters handbook: http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf

• alttag 15y ago
  Thanks. The article makes more sense now. For example, from the preface: “I liken starting one’s computing career with Unix, say as an undergraduate, to being born in East Africa. It is intolerably hot, your body is covered with lice and flies, you are malnourished and you suffer from numerous curable diseases. But, as far as young East Africans can tell, this is simply the natural condition and they live within it. By the time they find out differently, it is too late. They already think that the writing of shell scripts is a natural act.” — Ken Pier, Xerox PARC
  • Roboprog 15y ago
    I have a copy of UHH, and it's a funny read. It even points out some pitfalls to watch out for, at least back in the day. That said, Ubuntu now works pretty darn well, and with "Netflix in a box" devices, we're almost Windows-free at home. I wonder what Ken Pier thought of something like NOS on CDC-Cyber back in the 80s? Now that was a rough system. "Find the program" (... OK, done, ....) ... "Now, actually run it" (2 steps!); "Compile my program" "oops, 'rewind' the binary output target" (WTF?!?) "Now compile my program so that I see the current result". And so on...
  • zbuc 15y ago
    Yeow. That's a pretty harsh criticism. What alternatives were they in favor of?
    • seabee 15y ago
      It's PARC so likely a smalltalk environment is one of the alternatives.