Unix philosophy

[SHAWN%mit-ml at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:  Shawn F. McKay <SHAWN at mit-ml>


I know lots of people don't wan't to hear this; But here it is.

"UNIX" (4.1BSD/V7/System xx), all should be compiled into one place,
with all its winning features, and TOTALLY RE-WRITTEN, and called
something else. Unix(tm) as I see it, is getting very hacked, and very
old. It seems that every kernel I have seen so far, has more patches then
I like to THINK about, never mind use as a system. Would unix not run
a bit faster, look alot better, and be more portable, if some group
out there, (keeping the 'Unix Philosophy' in mind), wen't along,
and totally re-wrote it? And made it do as much as possable, (i.e. some
from 4.1BSD, some from V7, and such), into a smaller sized kernel?

Or at least, maybe it should be cleaned up? Clean the random hacks that
are in it now, fix what bugs are known, (in a neat way), and comment it
better. Unix never had to be 'well commented' before, but seeing how big,
and somewhat hairy its grown, maybe its time?


I also think, that there should be a 'unix' out there. Not the random
stuff like 'unix'/'4.1BSD'/'xenix'/'venix'/'2.8BSD'/'V7',
I think it might be a little better to have it something like:

Pdp-11's:	Unix Version x.x
Vax-11's:	Unix Version x.x
Other:		Unix Version x.x
Mc68K's:	Unix Version x.x

I know, this is not easy, as 'everyone has a unix' now days, but its getting
to the point where its hard to find a 'good' unix. as everyone has there
own hacks, and some have others, (like stuff in /usr/sys/sys/syslocal.c, on
2.8 BSD systems), You never know what you are missing when you buy 4.1 over
say V7. (Not that I can see you getting anything from V7 other then a 'good solid unix').
Well, enough said.

			Yours In Hacking(c),
			   -Shawn

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