Andrew Tanenebaum is my hero

Excuse the geekiness that follows...

Andrew Tanenbaum is my hero. He wrote the only two useful and interesting textbooks I was subjected to in my career as a computer science student: Modern Operating Systems and Computer Networks.

My belief was briefly shaken when a new report came out yesterday hinted that Mr Tanenbaum was being given credit for Linux, which is pretty ridiculous even to those who have a surface understanding of the history. Andrew Tanenbaum created MINIX, an operating system created for the express purpose of teaching students about operating systems. Linus Torvalds obviously knew about and used MINIX when he was developing Linux. That's because it's a tool to learn about operating systems. People need to learn about things. It's how we make better things. I'm not a huge Linux fan, but the whole argument being made in the report is just stupid in the extreme.

The source of the report was quickly discredited, however. But the worry still remained: what did Andrew Tanenbaum really say? Did he somehow encourage the report?

The answer just showed up on Slashdot a short while ago. No, of course not. His rebuttal to the report and his lambasting of its author is great fun to read. But he also takes time out to jab at Linux, which made me a little bit giddy:

Thus, of course, Linus didn't sit down in a vacuum and suddenly type in the Linux source code. He had my book, was running MINIX, and undoubtedly knew the history (since it is in my book). But the code was his. The proof of this is that he messed the design up. [...] The first version of Linux was like a time machine. It went back to a system worse than what he already had on his desk. Of course, he was just a kid and didn't know better (although if he had paid better attention in class he should have)."

So that made me very giggle. And Andrew Tanenbaum is still my hero.

(Aside: The Amiga OS was built on a microkernel architecture, so obviously it is the one, true, perfect operating system architecture. No further argument need be given).

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