The Richard Stevens books were huge here. I did not know him well but emailed with him a few times in the year before he died. I never met him in person but he was very kind to a much younger and more ignorant me.
Hello everyone,
I'm Wojciech Adam Koszek and I'm a new member here. After a short stint with Red Hat 6.0 and Slackware Linux around 2000-2001 (I think it was Slackware 7.0 or 7.1) my journey with UNIX started with FreeBSD 4.5. I fell in love with BSD and through Warner Losh, Robert Watson, and folks from a Polish UNIX scene, I became hooked. I ended up working with FreeBSD for the following 15 years or so.
Anyway: the volume of the UNIX literature back then in Poland was scarce, yet through a small bookstore and a friendly salesman I got myself a "UNIX Network Programming Volume 1" at a huge discount, and read it back-to-back.
Looking back, his books had a huge impact on my life (I had all his books, and read everything line by line, with a slight exception of TCP/IP illustrated vol 2, which I used as a reference), and while Stevens's website sheds some light on what he did, I often wonder what is the story behind how his books came to be. It doesn't help he appeared a very private person--never have I seen a photo of him anywhere.
What was the reception of his books in the US?
Did you know him? Do you know any more details about what he did after 1990?
Thanks and take care,
Wojciech Adam Koszek