I think it was jwz who said “Linux sucks, it just sucks less than everything else.”
"All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less." http://www.mutt.org
Reminds me of "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others"
The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
21–30 of 163 posts
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#22This is a tongue in cheek but also piece of shit MIT propaganda piece mostly written by the clowns who created the abortions that were Multics and LISPMs. Like as if every software engineer should start their next project by warming up their soldering irons to add obscure new features to their CPU's!
I know because I attended that school and worked with the fathers of Multics. The sad fact is that MIT produces extreme bloatware that nobody understands nor needs (gnu emacs cough cough). MIT has almost ruined unix with bloatware like 'configure' and gcc 'extensionettes'. The repeated rant about memory mapped files (a Multics bedrock feature) has been refuted as showboating hundreds of times by OS designers like my manager at Xerox OSD, the designer of Pilot, and an ex-MIT professor who never drank that Kool aid!
What's happening in OS's right now is that European bloatware is strangling Linux ... The reason Unix got people so thrilled is that it could 'terminate and stay resident' in one single human mind!
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#23Much of the book is very dated, complaining about things that have been rectified many years ago. However I think it still has a valuable lesson that many, particularly young CS students, would benefit from: Unix is not the perfect fundamental model for computing. C is not the gospel. Their prevalence today is as much a historic and economic accident as a rational consequence of their objective merits. Both are socia…
> However I think it still has a valuable lesson that many, particularly young CS students, would benefit from: Unix is not the perfect fundamental model for computing. C is not the gospel. The problem is, this book doesn't actually motivate that lesson. Instead, it spends a lot of its time sniping rather than arguing for why the entire philosophy is perhaps misguided or outright wrong. And sometimes, even the snipe…
I thought The UNIX Haters Handbook predated C++ templates?
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#24Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#25Much of the book is very dated, complaining about things that have been rectified many years ago. However I think it still has a valuable lesson that many, particularly young CS students, would benefit from: Unix is not the perfect fundamental model for computing. C is not the gospel. Their prevalence today is as much a historic and economic accident as a rational consequence of their objective merits. Both are socia…
>particularly young CS students >C is not the gospel >Worshipers of Bell Labs I think you're one or two generations late, you'd have to be a hipster to be a CS student worshiping C and Bell Labs these days. I suspect most CS students these days start around web technologies using VS Code in stock Ubuntu, not hacking C programs using Emacs running in dwm on a heavily customized Slackware. I do agree that cat-v and the…
> I suspect most CS students these days start around web technologies using VS Code in stock Ubuntu
More likely, Visual Studio Code on macOS.
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#26Much of the book is very dated, complaining about things that have been rectified many years ago. However I think it still has a valuable lesson that many, particularly young CS students, would benefit from: Unix is not the perfect fundamental model for computing. C is not the gospel. Their prevalence today is as much a historic and economic accident as a rational consequence of their objective merits. Both are socia…
As a systems software researcher, I concur. I like Unix and I’m very greatful for its impact on computing, but Unix and its derivatives are not the final answers of systems software design. I feel that much of the software engineering and computer science world (even among OS researchers) is unfamiliar with non-Unix designs other than Windows. We can learn a lot from historical non-Unix operating systems such as the…
BeOS is the silent master we can all learn from
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#27This is one of my favorite books, and I own the hard-copy. As I was reading it, I found that a lot of the problems mentioned seem to be affecting Windows and macOS, while Linux based distros have them resolved. I found the commentary and history both hilarious and informative. The anti-forward by Dennis Ritchie is also very funny. If anyone has found similar CS style humor books, please let me know!
I enjoyed "How not to program in C++". It's a collection of find-the-bug puzzles, and has hilarious war stories at the bottom of every other page.
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's this relevant joke about Linux which is that Linux is very user friendly... it's just very picky about who its friends are.
Linux is only free if your time is worthless. ;)
Windows 10 Pro is only $200.00 if your time is worthless, is the flip side.
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#29This is a tongue in cheek but also piece of shit MIT propaganda piece mostly written by the clowns who created the abortions that were Multics and LISPMs. Like as if every software engineer should start their next project by warming up their soldering irons to add obscure new features to their CPU's! I know because I attended that school and worked with the fathers of Multics. The sad fact is that MIT produces extrem…
I'll assume you're talking about systemd here? How is linux being strangled? How is it Europe's fault? As far as I can see linux is booming and almost ubiquitous as far as backend OS's go...
Re: The Unix-Haters Handbook (1994) [pdf]
#30This is a tongue in cheek but also piece of shit MIT propaganda piece mostly written by the clowns who created the abortions that were Multics and LISPMs. Like as if every software engineer should start their next project by warming up their soldering irons to add obscure new features to their CPU's! I know because I attended that school and worked with the fathers of Multics. The sad fact is that MIT produces extrem…
> This is a tongue in cheek but also piece of shit MIT propaganda piece mostly written by the clowns who created the abortions that were Multics and LISPMs.
Sure--the people who wrote systems with opposing philosophies to the "unix philosophy" are going to be the ones who write this book. And that they failed-in-the-market ("abortions") is already evident by the fact that HN is probably majority unix (mac) or unix-like (linux).
I confess I'm one of those people who has never used a lisp machine, and admires them greatly. I'd love to hear specific reasons I shouldn't admire them.