[TUHS] Any UNIX With No C In Userland?

[Larry McVoy]

On Sat, Mar 01, 2025 at 08:07:37PM -0600, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> Until you get to a level where decision makers truly have no
> accountability for anything they do (don't strain yourself looking for
> examples in the news), I've found (from my minuscule sampling of
> industry) that business decisions can usually be explained rationally.
> The problem is that the rationales are often kept secret, sometimes in
> the name of "strategy" but more often, I think, to keep line staff in
> their place instead of critically considering management decisions--
> unless they're willing to join political alliances and thereby make
> themselves (even more) vulnerable to dismissal for unspoken reasons.

As an engineer who was paid to try and convince Sun's execs that the pivot
to Solaris/System V was a mistake, I have a different take.  The 6 months
I spent at the top of PAL-1 where McNealy & Co worked were unsuccessful
but very educational.  Hanging out there gave me insight into what all
those execs did.  It's very different from what an engineer does, we
figure stuff out to the Nth degree.  The execs did not have that luxury.
What they did all day, every day, is make decisions about what to do but
with only about 1/10th the amount of information an engineer would have.
They simply couldn't wait long enough to know everything they wanted to
know, the rest of the industry would pass them by.

I would HATE to have their job.  As I grew to understand their jobs, my
respect for them went up but there is no amount of money that would make
me want that job.