12 Oct
2019
12 Oct
'19
2:55 p.m.
I don't really think I had an "Aha" moment as such. More a set of
them, after discovering computers again after failing to understand
them at high school - I blame Apple BASIC for that.
I think it was discovering two articles on Minix (also discussing the
Minix book) and Coherent in a local computer magazine, and of course
that Unix came with source was mentioned. So I bought the Minix book,
then when I could, I did a Unix course at the local polytech (SCO of
some description c. early 90s) and got the SLS Linux that now resides
in the Bochs area at Sourceforge.
It wasn't instantaneous, but more of a build-up - this stuff is
powerful and just works. Even better, you can read the source files
and get to understand everything about it - so you're not in a "cargo
cult" attitude to operating systems and applications: everything is in
your hands and you can go in as deeply as you wish. You just have to
be willing to work at learning it.
My 0.02c worth - don't spend it all at once!!! :)
Wesley Parish
On 10/11/19, Warren Toomey <wkt(a)tuhs.org> 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?
Mine was: Oh, I can:
+ write a simple script
+ to edit a file on the fly
+ with no temporary files (a la pipes)
+ AND I can change the file suffix and the system won't stop me!
I was using TOPS-20 beforehand.
Cheers, Warren