ugh.book

The UNIX-HATERS History xxvii

mouse-sensitive Lisp forms). Or safe tagged architecture that rigidly

distinguishes between pointers and integers. Or the Control-Meta-

Suspend key. Or manuals.

Time to boot!

John Rose sent his email message to an internal company mailing list.
Somehow it was forwarded to Michael Travers at the Media Lab. John
didn’t know that Michael was going to create a mailing list for himself and
his fellow Unix-hating friends and e-mail it out. But Michael did and,
seven years later, John is still on UNIX-HATERS, along with hundreds of
other people.

At the end of flame, John Rose included this disclaimer:

[Seriously folks: I’m doing my best to get our money’s worth out of

this box, and there are solutions to some of the above problems. In

particular, thanks to Bill for increasing my swap space. In terms of

raw CPU power, a Sun can really get jobs done fast. But I needed to

let off some steam, because this disappearing editor act is really get-

ting my dander up.]

Some disclaimer. The company in question had bought its Unix worksta-
tions to save money. But what they saved in hardware costs they soon spent
(and continue to spend) many times over in terms of higher costs for sup-
port and lost programmer productivity. Unfortunately, now that we know
better, it is too late. Lisp Machines are a fading memory at the company:
everybody uses Unix. Most think of Unix as a pretty good operating sys-
tem. After all, it’s better than DOS.

Or is it?

You are not alone

If you have ever used a Unix system, you have probably had the same
nightmarish experiences that we have had and heard. You may have
deleted important files and gone for help, only to be told that it was your
own fault, or, worse, a “rite of passage.” You may have spent hours writing
a heart-wrenching letter to a friend, only to have it lost in a mailer burp, or,
worse, have it sent to somebody else. We aim to show that you are not
alone and that your problems with Unix are not your fault.

Our grievance is not just against Unix itself, but against the cult of Unix
zealots who defend and nurture it. They take the heat, disease, and pesti-