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Dennis Ritchie said it all (on the book): Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pi
by itomato 4y ago
Dennis Ritchie said it all (on the book):
Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie: it reeks too much of contempt and of envy.
- marcodiego 4y agoUNIX did have its limitations. Also, some of its philosophies could be directly damaging if followed without due thought. Nevertheless, the success of linux is a testament to how enduring most of those concepts still are. On the other side, many of those criticisms were addressed, fixed or were never correct. I rest when I read about UHH and think that many of those complainers have to use a UNIX or a UNIX-like OS nowadays. It is almost impossible to send a package over the internet without having it processed by a linux system at some point. My favorite part of the anti-foreword is when Dennis Ritchie talks about how most of better-than-UNIX-OS' are "not just out to pasture, they are fertilizing it from below." Prophetic.
- Beltalowda 4y agoIt's been years since I read it, but from what I remember another big issue is that it compares Unix to ten different systems. "Unix can't do this, but SystemX can do it! And SystemY can do this better, and SystemZ's implementation of A is much better thought out!" Well, that's kind of cheating, innit? You can make anything look bad by comparing it to the best of 10 other systems.
- pjmlp 4y agoFree beer always taste better than highly priced wine, no wonder it is enduring.
- justin66 4y agoI always had the feeling Dennis was just going along with the bit.