Linux and the Unix Philosophy: Operating Systems

First the good news:- An interesting insight into the origins of Unix and Linux, and the common ideas which join the two.- His core ideas ('tenets of the Unix philosophy') really helped me to see why Linux is the way it is, especially at the command line.- He writes with an infectious enthusiasm, and I do feel challenged to change the way I write my humble shell scripts from now on, as I can see the benefits of the approaches he describes.Now the not-so-good:- Much of the book seems like a barely updated version of the author's original book (The Unix Philosophy, 1994). This is confirmed by a comparison of the Kindle samples of the two books, with many passages repeated verbatim.- Most of the examples which support the author's thesis are really dated now (e.g. the Atari 800). Some glaring anachronisms have been overlooked in the revision process, for example fax machines gaining wide acceptance at present! Although the last chapters bring his ideas into the 21st century, I feel it would have been better to have more current examples throughout the book.- The price tag is very heavy (GBP 25.64 when I bought it), which seems somewhat ironic for an electronic book from a self-proclaimed champion of open-source software.

If you're considering purchasing this book - let me make this easy. At sixteen years old (1986) I was using DOS with my younger brother on an IBM PC. All I got were beeps and control characters. I had no mentors that understood DOS better than me. Unix had been cooking for 16 years! Why couldn't Unix have been ported to the PC? Fast forward ten years and I had a Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems and I earned a living using MVS/JCL/COBOL II/DB2/CICS/ROSCOE/FILEAID. It took me days to slice and dice text files with JCL/FILEAID - it was like using a screw driver to remove nails. I still remember these JCL and Fileaid syntax. Unix would have made these tasks child's play. Today, my JCL and Fileaid syntax knowledge is worthless. If I'd learned grep awk instead - my skillset would be highly prized for the foreseeable future! In short, learning Unix/Linux syntax is an awesome investment. Why? In case you didn't know Unix/Linux will be going strong when your children's children are dead! This book actually made me sad. Sad that I was 37 years old before I encountered a Mike Gancarz's book that tells the Unix/Linux narrative. If only I'd gotten the message sooner when my mind was a sponge - I'd be so much farther along today! So here goes. If you're an old fart - maybe you should forget Linux - keep paying Microsoft a small fortune to re-badge their OS every 5-7 years. This book will make you see things from a brotherhood perspective. Your brothers want you to use their OS free. Yeah I want more Linux games too. Give them time. But in the mean time invest some time in learning the command line. I swear to you that Linux is logical, and even approachable, regardless how cryptic the command-line flags look at first. Every minute you invest in learning Linux can be passed-on to your kids, grandkids, & so on. Linux is eternal. This book tells you nothing of the syntax but you'll learn the Unix/Linux mindset. I skimmed at parts, but this is a necessary first step. This is where you should start your journey to learn Linux. I share your pain. Chin up - we're in this together.

The work does not intend to do more than explain the reason to prefer and to work in a Unix/Linux setting.The text is well written and conveys its points well.

I love it, but I'm having a hard time squaring the shift from Linux/Unix to Java/JVM as a 'fellow traveller'. In my experience, the two are not well matched, at least from an administrative point of view. The abstraction of the JVM is a distraction in Linux. However, the enthusiasm shown here is quite enlivening! :) The Java/JVM subject seems like a bolted-on tangent, and detracts from the overall read.

* * * * *Five stars for "Linux and the Unix Philosophy" because foremost it is an excellent discussion of the importance of the Open Source revolution.Also, what this text does is not to repeat the basic Unix design's principles e.g. 'everything in Unix is a file' e.t.c., but instead it focuses in some inspiring and innovative approaches to software engineering, mostly applied in the GNU/Linux world.It finaly proves in many ways the superiority of GNU/Linux - and Unix in general - in contrast to the other "desktop" systems.One thing I enjoyed the most is the parallelism between some Unix tenets and corresponding real life examples. Having read a lot of texts about Unix and Open Source Software I deeply recommend this book.

Good condition