[TUHS] CMU Mach sources?

Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com
Wed Jun 26 12:56:46 AEST 2019


On Tue, Jun 25, 2019 at 07:45:03PM -0700, Kurt H Maier wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 09:00:28PM -0400, Richard Salz wrote:
> > Is this really the kind of commentary appropriate for this list? I mean I'm
> > new here, but...
> 
> It might not be, but it is definitely relevant to Unix.  Arguably the
> drivers of Unix's development movement away from R&D-focused places and
> toward product-oriented entities had at least a little to do with
> Larry's topic of complaint.  Product managers gained the ammunition to
> demand sustainable development practices, while R&D got a little leaner,
> a little more focused on demonstrating the thesis, a little less focused
> on who might need to run this code five years on...

In the good old days at Sun, we were very focussed on who would run
this code for decades to come.  I think the engineers at Sun were very
focussed on helping people, the reason we were there was because the
work we did helped people.  The leverage was how much work we could
do versus how much that helped people.  That is product oriented.

I think the reason that any engineer works is because they feel like
their work helps someone.  As an engineer, I wanted to go to the place
and do the work that had the best chance of helping someone.  All of
Sun, when I was there, was like that.  We were there to help.  Yeah,
of course, we wanted to make money, but all of us wanted to help.
It's the dream, you do work, your work helps.


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