Re: [9fans] design issues in operating systems

["John S. Dyson" <dyson@iquest.net>]

north_ <northern_snow78@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<48effcda.0112022010.d4a2c9f@posting.google.com>...
> Ok, normally I do not take the time to write responses regarding
> issues like these. However, I believe Linus is a bit misguided
> and I would like to quickly postulate why. This isn't just a
> Linux problem. Its a lifestyle problem. You will see why I
> believe so in just one second or so ;)
> > --- bla bla bla snip ---
> > If you want to see a system that was more thoroughly _designed_, you
> > should probably point not to Dennis and Ken, but to systems like L4 and
> > Plan-9, and people like Jochen Liedtk and Rob Pike.
> >
> > And notice how they aren't all that popular or well known? "Design" is
> > like a religion - too much of it makes you inflexibly and unpopular.
> *G*.
> Design is in actuality nothing more than a personal concept. Design
> itself is a facade.
>

Well, most of the Linux (and *BSD) design wasn't done by those
who are working on it today.  Linux was a copy of a previous
design work done by someone else.

There might be some superior re-implementation in Linux or *BSD,
but claiming that Linux was designed by those who code it would
strongly imply that the concepts were also authored.  Without
the template provided by previous UNIX implementations, there would
not have been a template for Linux or *BSD.

There is some common source heritage between BSD and SVR4, but
the seed design certainly came from a couple of Bell Labs guys.

In an informal sense, the Linux developers might claim that they
designed the code.  However, making the proclaimation that Linux
was designed starting with the first line of code written for
it would be rather overstated.  Linux was essentially DESIGNED
(but not IMPLEMENTED) before the first line of code was written.

John