From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,PLING_QUERY,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 02c4da67 for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2019 12:54:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B58289B8B0; Fri, 11 Oct 2019 22:54:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2166493DBB; Fri, 11 Oct 2019 22:54:02 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 1510F93DBB; Fri, 11 Oct 2019 22:54:00 +1000 (AEST) Received: from vm6.ganeti.dyne.org (vm6.ganeti.dyne.org [195.169.149.119]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6A4C293D28 for ; Fri, 11 Oct 2019 22:53:58 +1000 (AEST) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (Authenticated sender: katolaz@freaknet.org) with ESMTPSA id 4A360F60B09 Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2019 14:53:52 +0200 From: KatolaZ To: Warren Toomey Message-ID: <20191011125352.tim4tv556w5mq4my@unixfarts.net> References: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> User-Agent: NeoMutt/20170113 (1.7.2) Subject: Re: [TUHS] What was your "Aha, Unix!" moment? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs@tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 06:55:46AM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote: > All, we had another dozen TUHS suscribers to the list overnight. Welcome. > A reminder that we're here to discuss Unix Heritage, so I'll nudge you > if the conversation goes a bit off-topic. > > So I'll kick off another thread. What was your "ahah" moment when you > first saw that Unix was special, especially compared to the systems you'd > previously used? > [cut] Disclaimer: I am on the young-ish side as well. I learned the basic Unix commands and the use of vi(1) from a book, some four or five years before I sat in front of a unix login prompt (around '91 or '92). I just found the whole thing amazing, so I re-read that book several times, waiting for the day when I would have been there for real. Then finally that day came, and that was my "aahhh, Unix!" moment. Instantly, everything made so much sense. As somebody else suggested, I really felt like a duck plunging in a pond for the first time. Since then, it has been just a sequence of "aha! Unix!" moments, like when I conjured a longish pipe which solved in 30 seconds a reporting problem on which two people had spent about two weeks, or when I left a colleague jaw-dropped after seeing how I fitted several million data points to a reference distribution with an awk+bc oneliner :P HND