xxii Preface
Our story started when the economics of computing began marching us,
one by one, into the Unix Gulag. We started passing notes to each other. At
first, they spoke of cultural isolation, of primitive rites and rituals that we
thought belonged only to myth and fantasy, of depravation and humilia-
tions. As time passed, the notes served as morale boosters, frequently using
black humor based upon our observations. Finally, just as prisoners who
plot their escape must understand the structure of the prison better than
their captors do, we poked and prodded into every crevice. To our horror,
we discovered that our prison had no coherent design. Because it had no
strong points, no rational basis, it was invulnerable to planned attack. Our
rationality could not upset its chaos, and our messages became defeatist,
documenting the chaos and lossage.This book is about people who are in abusive relationships with Unix,
woven around the threads in the UNIX-HATERS mailing list. These notes
are not always pretty to read. Some are inspired, some are vulgar, some
depressing. Few are hopeful. If you want the other side of the story, go read
a Unix how-to book or some sales brochures.This book won’t improve your Unix skills. If you are lucky, maybe you
will just stop using Unix entirely.The UNIX-HATERS History
The year was 1987, and Michael Travers, a graduate student at the MIT
Media Laboratory, was taking his first steps into the future. For years
Travers had written large and beautiful programs at the console of his Sym-