[amsat-bb] Re: gpredict

[Jeff Mock]

Nate Duehr wrote:
> On Jan 28, 2008, at 11:32 PM, don wrote:
> 
>> The PDP series ran unix, and I still have the original Bell System
>> Journals here at home describing the philosophy and design behind the
>> unix system. I tried over the last few days of re reading these  
>> journals
>> to find any reference to the denigrating of any other systems or their
>> users... Are linux users and prophets now straying far from the  
>> original
>> tracks for unix?
> 
> http://garote.bdmonkeys.net/commandline/index.html
> 
> Reading it, anyone can gain huge insights into the "OS Business" as  
> well as some very personal insights about why people like/dislike, or  
> use particular OS's -- and perhaps even how silly that all is, when  
> it's all said and done.
> 
 > [,,,]

Those are great references, I'll add one more the relates to the whiny 
poster's point that Linux has lost its way and strayed from the original 
Unix philosophy.  Rob Pike gave a hilarious talk way back in 1983 called 
"cat -v considered harmful" that makes the same point about Unix 
becoming bloated and being "the victim of cancerous growth":

    http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/

Managing growth of a complex software system is really difficult.  The 
good part about Unix/Linux is that the conversation happens out in the 
open from a wide range of viewpoints rather than an edict from the back 
room of a monolithic corporation.

Linux makes me much more productive.  I look back on my last two 
projects.  Most recently I designed a spectrometer for the radio 
telescope in Arecibo.  I used Linux as the OS in the spectrometer and as 
the OS on the server machines that store the data.  This let me focus on 
being a chip designer and most of the systems problems were easily 
solved with Linux.  This project is open for all to see:
     http://www.mock.com/pdev

Prior to that I was a chip designer on the team that designed the 
graphics chip for the Nintendo Wii.  We used Linux extensively as the 
platform for the simulation and test environment.  It was a large 
complex design and Linux was a fantastic platform for a large design 
project with lots of custom test software.

For me, Linux is a reliable and useful tool that makes me much more 
productive, but you should use whatever works well for you.

jeff