The Unix Haters' Handbook

[Alexander Schreiber]

On Sat, Apr 05, 2008 at 07:10:47PM -0400, Sean Conner wrote:
> It was thus said that the Great Liam Proven once stated:
> > 
> > When I was a baby geek, I remember reading about this seminal text, a
> > distillation from a long-active mailing list called UNIX-HATERS. Now,
> > it's available for free:
> 
>   Darn.  And to think I bought the dead tree version in the mid 90s (I still
> have the barf bag that came with it).
> 
> > It's a good & enjoyable read. I'm nearly at the end of it now.
> > 
> > It's interesting to look back at this 1991 (-ish) book from the
> > perspective of 2008. How many of the criticisms levelled against Unix
> > were stuff that users of then-older OSs thought was deranged.
> > 
> > Today, the same sort of rivalry exists between Unix and Windows
> > people; the stuff before them is nearly forgotten now. I mean, I've
> > been in this business for some 20y (and another 5-10y before that as a
> > hobbyist) and I've never seen TOPS or MULTICS or ITS or anything like
> > them.
> 
>   I've certainly heard of them myself, and some of the concepts they came up
> with have made me want to learn more about each one, but I've yet to
> actually use any of them.  
> 
> > What I'm wondering is, how many of the criticisms levelled against
> > Unix (and thus, by association, Linux) in this book from 17y ago are
> > still current or valid today. I've been using Linux for 11-12y now,
> > but I still regard myself as something of a beginner, whereas I've
> > known Windows since it was 2 and can make it jump backwards through
> > flaming hoops.
> 
>   Chapter 1---not so much any more.  This was a time (94) when the ANSI-C
> standard had only been out a few years so there was still quite a bit of K&R
> C floating around.  This was also a time when there were still plenty of
> Unix versions floating around, instead of the what?  Five we have left now?
> (Linux, Open|Free|NetBSD, Solaris).  

HP-UX and AIX are still alive and kicking, so commercial UNIX isn't
dead, it just smells funny.

>   Chapter 6---terminals.  Not so much anymore.  Pretty much vt100/xterm and
> you're good to go (alhough I still have issues with BS vs. DEL on Linux).
> 
>   Chapter 7---Pretty much spot on, although the alternatives to X Windows
> are worse (that is, if you want remote capabilities).  And sadly, I do miss
> NeWS (used it in college; was sad when SGI dropped it).
> 
>   Chapter 8---who uses csh anymore?  I think we all use bash nowadays, but
> this still holds up pretty well (man, I can't make heads or tails of the
> startup scripts on Linux, but then again, I never did learn to really read
> shell scripts).

Ah, those are reasonably easy to read, but some people do really twisted
things with shell scripts.

>   Chapter 11---If anything it's gotten better and worse in my opinion.  If
> you set up Unix correctly, it can run smoothly for years without problems. 
> The major problem comes when you have other users on the system, or trying
> to get a modern Linux distribution set up correctly (when did "which" become
> optional?  Or "traceroute"?  Don't even get me started on so-called "package
> managers").  

Package managers, done _right_ are a godsend. Done wrong, they are a
nightmare.

>   Chapter 13---file systems.  They're gotten much better over the years, and
> even Linux is slowly learning about removable media [1].
> 
>   Chapter 14---I don't know anyone using NFS anymore (I think the last time
> I saw NFS in a commercial setting was the late 90s, and even at home, I
> don't use NFS all that much).  But replace NFS with Samba, and it's spot on
> (more or less).

Lets just say that NFS is _very_ much alive and in use, all over the
place. From home networks (here, $HOME sits on NFS) to small and large
companies.

Regards,
         Alex.
-- 
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
 looks like work."                                      -- Thomas A. Edison