[salmo]

I don’t find that book to be very useful at all.

I’m kind of annoyed by the bait and switch of the title. It’s a play on Knuth’s classic but then turns into showing why Unix/Linux is better than Windows, etc.

As a disclaimer: I really don’t respect ESR and his work, and admire Brian Kernighan immensely. Very odd to be in a situation where those names are put side by side. Just want to call out that I do have bias on the people here. Don’t want to get into why as that’s not constructive.

[pcthrowaway]

I wasn't aware of the bait and switch at the time I read it, but I did really enjoy the history of how the Unix/Linux ethic came together and evolved over time. Had I heard of The Unix Programming Environment when I read it in 2014 I may have gone with that instead, as I was looking for something more along the lines of a technical handbook rather than a code of ethics.

[salmo]

Yeah and ESR can be revisionist in his history, projecting intention on something organic. He alienated a lot of people over time with this… and other behavior.

The book I recommended is both a handbook and a “how to think.” It applies forward to things introduced well after the book. But it also helped me understand why the Byzantine behavior of a tty is what it is.

If you are interested in the history from a first person perspective, I do recommend Kernighan’s “Unix: A History and a Memoir”. He went from originally trying to write something objective to realizing it was necessarily his personal experience. Even the culture aspect of his story has influenced how I try to foster teamwork. It was an engaging read for me.