71–80 of 163 posts
I founded the mailing list the book was based on. These days I say, Unix went from being the worst operating system available, to being the best operating system available, without getting appreciably better. (which may not be entirely accurate, but don't flame me). And still miss my Lisp Machine. It's not that Unix is really that bad, it's that it has a certain model of computer use which has crowded out the more am…
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. 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-li…
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. 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...
This 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.
Earlier 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.
At least its not user-hostile, e.g. it doesnt spy on its users.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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-li…
LISPms, Multics, Symbolics machines all run instances of software that depended upon custom instructions, tailored precisely for the languages which they executed, and could not be ported to any other machine.
Keep fighting the good fight, comrade.
I think it's a good book and worth reading still, if not especially, in the modern world where to many people Unix and its family are the hot "alternative" that is often favourably compared against Windows and its ilk.
But I also think that Ritchie's "anti-preface" was already quite on-the-nose when the book came out and has only become more true over time.
I founded the mailing list the book was based on. These days I say, Unix went from being the worst operating system available, to being the best operating system available, without getting appreciably better. (which may not be entirely accurate, but don't flame me). And still miss my Lisp Machine. It's not that Unix is really that bad, it's that it has a certain model of computer use which has crowded out the more am…
Do you have any suggested reading to learn more about the more ambitious visions from the 70s and 80s, and why they didn't pan out?
Too complex and takes too long to deliver.In the end, the winner takes it all.