Andrew S. Tanenbaum famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

With current technology it is possible to put four floppy disk drives in a personal computer. It is just that doing so would be pointless.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Technology #Would Be #Four
A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Nice #Years #Might
UNIX does not allow path names to be prefixed by a drive name or number; that would be precisely the kind of device dependence that operating systems ought to eliminate.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Names #Numbers #Doe
A lot of other people wanted a free production UNIX with lots of bells and whistles and wanted to convert MINIX into that. I was dragged along in the maelstrom for a while, but when Linux came along, I was actually relieved that I could go back to professoring.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#People #Bells #Maelstrom
The only real argument for monolithic systems was performance, and there is now enough evidence showing that microkernel systems can be just as fast as monolithic systems.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Real #Argument #Enough
But in all honesty, I would suggest that people who want a modern "free" OS look around for a microkernel-based, portable OS, like maybe GNU or something like that.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Honesty #People #Looks
A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Linux #Performances
Writing a portable OS is not much harder than a nonportable one, and all systems should be written with portability in mind these days.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Writing #Mind #Should
While most people can talk rationally about kernel design and portability, the issue of free-ness is 100% emotional.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Emotional #Issues #People
XML combines the efficiency of text files with the readability of binary files
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Efficiency #Binary
Unfortunately, the current generation of mail programs do not have checkers to see if the sender knows what he is talking about.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Talking #Generations #Mail
If anyone had realized that within 10 years this tiny system that was picked up almost by accident was going to be controlling 50 million computers, considerably more thought might have gone into it.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Years #Gone #Might
I had never engaged in remote multishrink psychoanalysis on this scale before, so it was a fascinating experience.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Scales #Psychoanalysis
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Tape #Wagons #Underestimate
However, as every parent of a small child knows, converting a large object into small fragments is considerably easier than the reverse process.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Children #Parent #Easier
Fight Features. â€¦ The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Fighting #Way #Software
Linux is a leprosy; â€¦ This statement is not grammatically or factually correct.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Leprosy #Linux
I really am not angry with Linus. Honest. He's not angry with me either.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Honest #Angry
I can type faster than I can point. And my mother told me that pointing is impolite.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Mother #Type #Faster
A couple of years ago this guy called Ken Brown wrote a book saying that Linus stole Linux from me It later came out that Microsoft had paid him to do this
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Couple #Book #Years
Microkernels are not a pipe dream. They represent proven technology.
-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#Dream #Technology #Pipe Dreams

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