Re: Learning from history - The UNIX-Hater's Handbook (Peter Quirk)

"Peter Quirk" <[email protected]> wrote:

Couple of points Peter:

 > As the old adage goes, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat 
 > it."
 > Since Linux was initially just an attempt to create a copyright-free
 > version of UNIX, we need to look to UNIX for the source of the many 
of > its annoyances.

It has become recent "history" that many people are saying Linux is 
"copyright-free" or that Linux, in general, ignores copyright. This is 
most certainly NOT true. Nothing could be further from the truth. The 
whole basis of the GPL and ANY other OSS license is solidly based on 
current copyright law. The ONLY code in Linux that is NOT copyrighted is 
the code that has a public domain license. Fortunately there is very 
little public domain licensed software in Linux. You might be interested 
in reading the GPL which can be found in every Linux distribution or a 
click away at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html
If that is too heavy going... you may want to read:
http://www.li.org/whatislinux.php
Notice the part where it says:
"The Linux Kernel is Copyright (c) Linus B. Torvalds under the terms of 
the General Public License (GPL)."
I hope that clears up your misconception(s).
And now that you know some of the facts about the true Linux history and 
its relation to copyright laws... please do not repeat your misconceptions.

 > You will find a wealth of material in the UNIX-Hater's Handbook
 > at http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf. This work was published 
in > 1994, just as Dee-Ann was getting interested in computers. Little 
has > been done to correct the deficiencies described therein except POSIX
 > standardization of the shell and some APIs.

I disagree. On what do you base your assertion that little has been done?

 > Sadly, the lessons of this text are seldom taught in Universities.

What would you have them teach at Universities?

 > On a recent tour of colleges with my son to select a computer science 
 > school, I had a conversation with the Dean of Undergraduate CS 
studies > at a prestigious school. The Dean told us that the school 
focused on
 > Linux, Solaris and Java. I asked what my son might learn about new
 > technologies like C# and .NET during his four years at the school.
 > "Nothing, if we can help it!" was the answer.

Good answer!!

-DU-...etc...