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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ The main highlights of Unix are possibly these:
- Text centrism (great [command line](cli.md) preference), value on [portability](portability.md) (even over performance), sharing of source code, freedom of information and openness, connection to [hacker culture](hacking.md), valuing human time over machine time, ...
- ...
Unix is greatly connected to software [minimalism](minimalism.md), however most unices are still not minimalist to absolute extreme and many unix forks (e.g. [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md)) just abandon minimalism as a priority. So the question stands: **is Unix [LRS](lrs.md) or is it too [bloated](bloat.md)?** The answer to this will be similar to our stance towards the [C](c.md) language (which itself was developed alongside Unix); from our point of view Unix -- i.e. its concepts and some of their existing implementations -- is relatively good, there is a lot of wisdom to take away (e.g. "do one thing well", modularity, "use text interfaces", ...), however these are intermixed with things which under more strict minimalism we may want to abandon (e.g. "everything is a file" requires we buy into the file [abstraction](abstraction.md) and will often also imply existence of a file system etc., which may be unnecessary), so in some ways we see Unix as a temporary "[least evil](least_evil.md)" tool on our way to truly good, extremely minimalist technology. [DuskOS](duskos.md) is an example of operating system more close to the final idea of LRS. But for now Unix is very cool, some Unix-like systems are definitely a good choice nowadays.
Unix is greatly connected to software [minimalism](minimalism.md), however most unices are still not minimalist to absolute extreme and many unix forks (e.g. [GNU](gnu.md)/[Linux](linux.md)) just abandon minimalism as a priority. So the question stands: **is Unix [LRS](lrs.md) or is it too [bloated](bloat.md)?** The answer to this will be similar to our stance towards the [C](c.md) language (which itself was developed alongside Unix); from our point of view Unix -- i.e. its concepts and some of their existing implementations -- is relatively good, there is a lot of wisdom to take away (e.g. "do one thing well", modularity, "use text interfaces", ...), however these are intermixed with things which under more strict minimalism we may want to abandon (e.g. multiple users, file permissions and ownership, also "everything is a file" requires we buy into the file [abstraction](abstraction.md) and will often also imply existence of a file system etc., which may be unnecessary, even multitasking could be dropped), so in some ways we see Unix as a temporary "[least evil](least_evil.md)" tool on our way to truly good, extremely minimalist technology. [DuskOS](duskos.md) is an example of operating system more close to the final idea of LRS. But for now Unix is very cool, some Unix-like systems are definitely a good choice nowadays.
There is a semi humorous group called the *UNIX HATERS* that has a mailing list and a whole book that criticizes Unix, arguing that the systems that came before it were much better -- though it's mostly just [joking](jokes.md), they give some good points sometimes. It's like they are the biggest boomers for whom the Unix is what [Windows](windows.md) is to the Unix people.
@ -25,4 +25,4 @@ In the early 1970s the system got funding as well as its name Unix (a pun on Mul
Unix then started being sold commercially. This led to its fragmentation into different versions such as the [BSD](bsd.md) or [Solaris](solaris.md). In 1983 a version called System V was released which would become one of the most successful. The fragmentation and a lack of a unified standard led to so called [Unix Wars](unix_wars.md) in the late 1980s, which led to a few Unix standards such as [POSIX](posix.md) and Single Unix Specification.
For [zoomers](genz.md) and other noobs: Unix wasn't like [Windows](windows.md), it was more like [DOS](dos.md), things were done in [text interface](cli.md) -- if you use the command line in "[Linux](linux.md)" nowadays, you'll get an idea of what it was like, except it was all even more primitive. Things we take for granted such as a [mouse](mouse.md), [copy-pastes](copy_paste.md), interactive text editors, having multiple user accounts or [running multiple programs at once](multitasking.md) were either non-existent or advanced features in the early days. Anything these guys did you have to see as done with stone tools.
For [zoomers](genz.md) and other noobs: Unix wasn't like [Windows](windows.md), it was more like [DOS](dos.md), things were done in [text interface](cli.md) only (even a [TUI](tui.md) or just colorful text was a luxury) -- if you use the command line in "[Linux](linux.md)" nowadays, you'll get an idea of what it was like, except it was all even more primitive. Things we take for granted such as a [mouse](mouse.md), [copy-pastes](copy_paste.md), interactive text editors, having multiple user accounts or [running multiple programs at once](multitasking.md) were either non-existent or advanced features in the early days. There weren't even personal computers back then, people accessed share computers over terminals. Anything these guys did you have to see as done with stone tools -- they didn't have GPUs, gigaherts CPUs, gigabytes of RAM, scripting languages like Python or JavaScript, Google, stack overflow, wifi, mice, IDEs, multiple HD screens all around, none of that -- and yet they programmed faster, less buggy software that was much more efficient. If this doesn't make you think, then probably nothing will.