[TUHS] TUHS Digest, Vol 32, Issue 8

[Larry McVoy]

> There's a reason Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson have been awarded  
> the U.S. National Medal of Technology (1998) and are fellows of the  
> Computer History Museum Online. Dave Cutler hasn't and isn't.
> "You are not expected to understand this."

And while I think this is a little unfair to Dave that's a great .sig

It goes well with the recent post about Unix vs NT that concluded about 
NT "there is no there there".  I live on both platforms and I couldn't
agree more.

Some day I'll post my view on this but here is the really short summary.
There are two classes of people: those who derive answers and those who
memorize them.  As Mark Twain said, the latter group is much larger than
the former.  My claim is that Unix appeals to the first group - you can 
guess what it is going to do and you'll be right most of the time.
Windows appeals to the other group.  They don't have the ability to derive
any answer and they are comfortable with a system that mostly works but
has "no there there".  They can't tell the difference.

The sad part (and the good part!) is that all of us on this list are
in the former group which is smaller.  I think we (well, many of us)
wish that more people thought like we do and figured stuff out for
themselves but the reality is that most people aren't inclined to do that.
So the good and bad part is that we're a small select group.  Personally,
I've come to accept that and like it.  I've gotten to the point where I
realize that people who can derive the answer are special, they are gift,
and I consider myself lucky when I run into a concentrated group of them.
Cough, cough, that would be you.  :)
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Larry McVoy                lm at bitmover.com           http://www.bitkeeper.com