[COFF] Isaacson v Unix [really RMS bashing]

[Will Senn]

> On Jan 6, 2019, at 11:36 PM, on TUHS Andy Kosela 
> <akosela at andykosela.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Jan 6, 2019 at 9:01 PM A. P. Garcia 
>> <a.phillip.garcia at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Sun, Jan 6, 2019, 9:39 PM Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jan 6, 2019, 7:06 PM Steve Nickolas <usotsuki at buric.co wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, 6 Jan 2019, A. P. Garcia wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If not for GNU, Unix would still have been cloned. Net/2 happened in
>>>> parallel, did it not?
>>>
>>>
>>> Berkeley actively rewrote most of unix yes. Net/1 was released about 
>>> the same time GNU was getting started. Net/2 and later 4.4 BSD 
>>> continued this trend, where 4.4 was finally a complete system. 
>>> BSD386 only lagged Linux by about a year and had much stronger 
>>> networking support, but supported fewer obscure devices than linux...
>>>
>>> Warner
>>>
>>> Ps I know this glosses over a lot, and isn't intended to be pedantic 
>>> as to who got where first. Only they were about the same time... and 
>>> I'm especially glossing over the AT&T suits, etc.
>>
>>
>> It's really hard to say. How would you compile it? Clang didn't come 
>> along until 2007. The Amsterdam Compiler Kit, perhaps?
>
> I find it ironic that BSD people are so quick to bash RMS, yet they
> have been using his tools (gcc and various utils) for years... By
> reading this thread it appears there are more people that have
> personal issues with RMS than technical ones. I find usually there
> are two sides to each story though.
>
> One side is eloquently presented in 2001 movie "Revolution OS"[1]
> starring RMS amongst others.
>
> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vW62KqKJ5A
>
> --Andy
>
> --Andy

I know a lot of folks seek adulation and acclaim. They can’t seem to 
help themselves. Often, they deserve more recognition than they deserve, 
other times not. As I have sought information regarding the history of 
UNIX, it has as often as not involved personal narrative of those who 
were involved in that history. Thankfully, a lot of those folks are 
alive and reasonably cogent. This is a treasure that deserves 
appreciation. However, to say that so and so invented/discovered such 
and such is to make little the environment, resources, patronage, 
gestalt, and even the zeitgeist.

Who discovered Oxygen? Lavosier? Did Pascal save the world? Read Bruno 
Latour’s work for a different perspective on science and discovery. 
Particularly, Science in Action or Laboratory Life. Discovery is rarely, 
if ever, a solo activity, contrary to a lot of hype and romanticization 
in the literature and media.

With regard to who wrote what code... I’ve written a lot of it, that I 
personally designed. That code still lives in binary form that runs on 
devices that folks use to this day. However, while my code is probably 
still, as originally written, in the heart of many running systems, it 
is certain that many of these system have been enhanced beyond 
recognition. I guarantee you I didn’t do the extensions (I get bored way 
to easily). So, if you look at the system today and ask who wrote it, 
who wrote it? I would contend that while I wrote the key abstractions 
that allowed these systems to come into existence, others also wrote 
code to make the systems what they are today and without those 
contributions, they would be lesser systems.

I love ancient UNIX, thank you Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, DEC, Bell 
Labs management, those Multics folks, IBM, etc :). But I work, everyday, 
on a mid-2012 15” Aluminum Unibody Macbook Pro with an Intel processor 
and Hynix ram, some Chinese SSD, and who knows what else... Thank you 
Steve Jobs and hosts of thousands for making this miracle possible. Oh, 
and yes, I daily use gcc/gdb (although, I’d prefer clang/lldb because it 
comes with no associated community whining), so thank you RMS.

Later,

Will