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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!labtam!news.mel.aone.net.au!OzEmail!metro!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!ieunet!maths.tcd.ie!maths.tcd.ie!not-for-mail From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Slight flame from Linux user Date: 4 Jun 1995 17:21:34 +0100 Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Lines: 31 Message-ID: <3qsmie$bl6@bell.maths.tcd.ie> References: <3ql3gd$je2@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <3qo2af$nqo@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <3qq5i8$2jj@anshar.shadow.net> <3qqotb$sla@hamilton.maths.tcd.ie> <D9nMI9.Lys@midway.uchicago.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: bell.maths.tcd.ie Tim Pierce <twpierce@midway.uchicago.edu> writes: >I don't believe that there is an advantage in making an >operating system as easy as instant pudding. Running, >administering, debugging, and configuring an operating >system will never be "easy," in the same way that flying, >landing and troubleshooting an aircraft will never be >"easy." ... >Fortunately, your patronizing attitude was apparently not >shared by Ken, Dennis or Rob. Assuming Ken and Dennis mean Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie, I don't believe either of these gentlemen would share your view. I actually heard Thompson say (at a conference in 1983) "We wanted to design a system that anyone could run." And I heard Ritchie at a later conference complaining, rather plaintively, that Unix was just as simple as DOS, and he couldn't understand why DOS was doing so well. Is flying an airplane very difficult ? I doubt it. Running Linux is about as difficult as riding a bicycle. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland