184 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
184 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
Subject: Why I love Unix...
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Date: Thu, 10 Aug 89 13:30:40 EST
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From: Gene Spafford <spaf@cs.purdue.edu>
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Here's another gem from the GSP digest...
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------- Forwarded Message
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==========
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Item 7:
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==========
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From: davidl@tekadg.UUCP (Dave)
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Newsgroups: net.general
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Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 20:16:01 EST
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Subject: Unix, Unixpeople, Usenix - from a non-compunerd's point of view...
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[ This is old, and lengthy; but it's worth reading just to get to
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Dennis Ritchie's reply at the end. ---Rsk ]
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Well, I haven't had any choice. For the past couple of years, I've
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been forced to use Unix to get my job done - the choice was made for me.
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And, despite repeated reassurances from Unix-people that "you'll really
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like it once you get up to speed", it's still at best an uneasy truce.
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There's no question that it has its good points. Structured directories.
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Pipes. History mechanism (yes, I'm sure everyone's yawning).
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But, the documentation... I'm really tired of illiterate ramblings and cute
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little social commentaries and other trash (which seems to be particularly
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endemic to Berkeley "documentation") - especially when what real information
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is therein is so sketchy that one ends up having to struggle for days to
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figure out how do things with Unix that could be determined in a few minutes
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with a DEC or IBM manual. One simply can't do anything very sophisticated
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with Unix without (a) the source code, and (b) a (shudder) "UNIX-person",
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which has already spent the better part of its adolescence blundering across
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all the stupid little quirks which users end up fighting on their way to trying
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to accomplish in 2 weeks what would take 3 days with a good commercial
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operating system.
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It works just fine for sending mail around, or for editing (as long as you
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don't try to do anything very sophisticated with any of the plethora of
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editors). I notice it has at long last learned about some little things like
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memory management (or has it, really?) and task-to-task communication
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(barely) and... how 'bout shared resident memory, and, and, and... And it's
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hardly possible for anyone to apply what little Unix has in the way of such
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"sophisticated" features (they're fundamental to most other O.S.'s), without
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having to become a "Unix-wizard" - the term itself being testimony to the
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infantile mentality of Unix-people.
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Unfortunately, despite its undesirability in other respects, there's
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considerable incentive to use Unix due to its portability. When an O.S. is
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needed for a new system, Unix can be brought up quickly, since most of it is
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written in C. What gets overlooked by the naive management which allows the
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thing into the company, of course, is that (1) they're going to be forever
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tweaking and grooming and hassling and hacking in an effort to get it to run
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efficiently - which is hopeless, since it will never be as efficient as a
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completely native O.S. no matter how long one fiddles with it - and (2) as
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long as they keep attempting to use it, they're going to have to put up with
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Unix-people...
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(The commercial mainframe manufacturers could take a lesson from this...
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If a package is portable, people will buy it even though it's trash -
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and that situation is not going to change. It's a big selling point.)
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Of course, just as often, it gets used for little or no reason: for instance,
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because a gang of Unix compunerds, again characteristically from Berkeley
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or some similarly virulent seedbed, infiltrated a computer-center dragging Unix
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in its wake, snowed the appropriate set of ignorant bureaucrats, and then
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proceeded to inflict Unix on the resident mainframe and its unfortunate users.
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After all, it's inexpensive, compared to a real commercial product (you get
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what you pay for, of course) - and the Unix-people are more than happy to
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sit up all night eating Twinkies and hacking yet another fully-customized
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installation into existence, all the while congratulating each other
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upon their wizardliness...
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A large proportion of the people one finds "supporting" Unix systems grew up
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with Unix and have never used anything else - Unix is their religion, and they
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have no perspective at all on operating systems or even software in general.
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As an experiment, try discussing another O.S. with one of them - and observe
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the scandalized, intolerant looks you get, as if to say, "How DARE you even
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even SUGGEST that any O.S. other than Unix even exists!!!" They generally
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have a very limited skill set - very few of them can be described as
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software engineers or computer scientists. If anyone ever markets a really
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well documented Unix which doesn't require babysitting by a phalanx of
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provincial Unix clones, there'll be a lot of unemployable, Twinky-braindamaged
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misfits out deservedly pounding the pavement.
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For a real eye-opener, check out a Usenix convention. I went to the last
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one because it was right here in town - "why not?", I thought - (I soon found
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out...). Are those the people who keep calling themselves "Unix
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professionals" ? I couldn't believe the inane, sophomoric contents of what
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passed for papers at that convention. Try reading some of the IEEE or ACM
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proceedings on computer science and then read some of that Usenix trash. I
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wouldn't be able to face myself in a mirror if I put garbage like that in
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print.
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Furthermore, the sociological phenomena to be observed at Usenix are appalling
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.
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Comparing Usenix with an IEEE, ACM, or other truly professional convention is
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like comparing an oligarchy with a democracy. Socially, Usenix is like a
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spherical glob, with a handful of original software authors at the center (the
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ones who wrote the original code, like the developers of Unix, C, etc. - the
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ones whose names are always being bandied about). Around these, there's a
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surrounding shell of what has been aptly called "Unix groupies" trying to
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associate themselves, both logically and physically, with the "illuminati"
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at the center. Typically, these loathsome little insects are system
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administrators and hackers who spend their time either on the net or
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endlessly rewriting UUCP or NROFF or, or, or... And, I'm told, there are
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even some real, honest-to-goodness groupies (of the rock-star variety) who
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spend their time trying get near the "inner circle" for - never mind...
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it's believable, though - it's certainly consistent with the demeanor of
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the rest of the proceedings.
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Finally, around the outside, of course, are the peasants, as it were - the
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users, of whatever variety, some of whom are trying to wiggle their way
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inside, most of whom are just there to get a free ride out of their company,
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and a few of whom are desperately trying to learn something about the
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undocumented, flakey O.S. upon which their job depends...
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Sigh, and aria..........
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Voluntary disclaimer: If this article in any way represented the opinions and
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policies of Tektronix, Inc., I wouldn't have had to write it.
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From: rdoty@lumiere.UUCP (Richard Doty)
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Newsgroups: net.general,net.unix,net.usenix,net.news.adm,net.news.sa,net.unix-w
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izards
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Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 20:05:59 EST
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Subject: Re: Unix, Unixpeople, Usenix - from a non-compunerd's point of view...
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Sigh. I'm not Tek's personnel department, nor do I control who does
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and does not have access to news posting privileges. Long-time netters
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will recall similar outbursts from David in the past. There appears to
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be nothing that can be done about him here.
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FYI, tekadg does not receive news, the system administrator is Tony
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Rick (tektronix!tekadg!tonyr), and the user's last name is Levadie.
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rdoty (embarrassed) News Admin for Tektronix, Inc.
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From: dmr@dutoit.UUCP
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Newsgroups: net.unix
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Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 00:30:04 EST
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Subject: Groupies
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tekadg!davidl writes, at considerable length and with widespread distribution:
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> ... Socially, Usenix is like a
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> spherical glob, with a handful of original software authors at the center (th
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e
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> ones who wrote the original code, like the developers of Unix, C, etc. - the
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> ones whose names are always being bandied about). Around these, there's a
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> surrounding shell of what has been aptly called "Unix groupies" trying to
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> associate themselves, both logically and physically, with the "illuminati"
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> at the center. Typically, these loathsome little insects are system
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> administrators and hackers who spend their time either on the net or
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> endlessly rewriting UUCP or NROFF or, or, or... And, I'm told, there are
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> even some real, honest-to-goodness groupies (of the rock-star variety) who
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> spend their time trying get near the "inner circle" for - never mind...
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> it's believable, though - it's certainly consistent with the demeanor of
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> the rest of the proceedings.
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Usenix conventions, which are undeniably and appropriately narrow-minded
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and introverted, sport more than a few bores, but are notable for absence
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of loathsome insects. Even the irascible Rob Pike remarked after Portland,
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"Goodness, there were very few loathesome insects there."
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They are also marked by a lack of honest-to-goodness rock-star-variety
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groupies. Believe me on this. The free cocaine was nowhere in evidence,
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I consumed no cigar-sized hash bombers, the insistent, complaisant
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lovelies were elsewhere by the time I got back from dinner. Indeed, the
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plaster of Paris I had obtained in case anyone wanted a cast of my genitals
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went entirely unused.
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Still, I understand the party that AT&T threw in Washington
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was pretty wild. Too bad I missed it.
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DMR
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------- End of Forwarded Message
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