Random and Irrelevant

The Art of Unix Programming

Eric Raymond has been working on a book called The Art of Unix Programming. For those who aren't aware of Eric, he's a longtime hacker and Open Source/Free Software crusader, as well as a libertarian, sf fan, chronicler of the hacker culture, martial-artist and self-described gun-nut.

But whatever you might make of Eric's politics, it can't be denied that he's a highly articulate and intelligent man with a lot of insight into the world of Unix and it's various off-shoots, as well as being an accomplished and respected programmer in his own right. This book is a distillation of Unix history, attitude and philosophy, and as such is fascinating to someone like me who has become more and more interested in this aspect of computing over the last few years. Although it's still a draft, he has a copy publically available on his website, and doesn't seem to mind people browsing.

If you've even the slightest interest in Unix or Linux and the history and culture that lies behind these operating systems, then this work comes highly recommended. Even for those not interested in the technical aspects, there's plenty here to inform and entertain - an awful lot of people don't realise the place that Unix has in the history and development of computing and the internet due to the almost total dominance of Microsoft in the general end-user marketplace. They'd do well to have a look at this book!

Disclaimer: Being a relative newbie to the wonderful world of Unix, I really can't vouch for Eric's views, but he's widely respected, has been working in the area for many years, and has encouraged contributions from others in the field - he discusses this in the notes on the page linked to above.