Linux Unix Quotes

graphical user interfaces make
easy tasks easy, while command line interfaces make difficult tasks possible ~ William E. Shotts Jr.

Many users of the GNU/Linux system will not have heard the ideas of free software. They will not be aware that we have ideas, that a system exists because of ethical ideals, which were omitted from ideas associated with the term 'open source.' ~ Richard Stallman

I don't expect to go hungry if I decide to leave the University. Resume: Linux looks pretty good in many places. ~ Linus Torvalds

The Open Source theorem says that if you give away source code, innovation will occur. Certainly, Unix was done this way ... However, the corollary states that the innovation will occur elsewhere. No matter how many people you hire. So the only way to get close to the state of the art is to give the people who are going to be doing the innovative things the means to do it. That's why we had built-in source code with Unix. Open source is tapping the energy that's out there. ~ Bill Joy

I got tired of people complaining that it was too hard to use UNIX because the editor was too complicated. ~ Bill Joy

There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area, and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach. ~ Linus Torvalds

The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it. ~ Linus Torvalds

A lot of that momentum comes from the fact that Linux is free. ~ Nat Friedman

Big Linux deployments have reached the point where it's become a real problem for administrators that they don't have nice tools to manage their servers and desktops. ~ Nat Friedman

I think Linux is a great thing, in the big picture. It's a great hacker's tool, and it has a lot of potential to become something more. ~ Jamie Zawinski

There's innovation in Linux. There are some really good technical features that I'm proud of. There are capabilities in Linux that aren't in other operating systems. ~ Linus Torvalds

Just about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac and nobody cares about it. ~ Bill Joy

Releasing Linux versions has always been a matter of higher code quality, good software architecture, and technical interest for the platform. ~ Timothee Besset

Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. ~ Linus Torvalds

Unix is not so much an operating system as an oral history. ~ Neal Stephenson

Some consider UNIX to be the second most important invention to come out of AT&T Bell Labs after the transistor. ~ Dennis Ritchie

We can build a better product than Linux, ~ Jim Allchin

On a UNIX system, everything is a file; if something is not a file, it is a process. ~ Machtelt Garrels

One of the reasons that I really don't mind that people are selling Linux commercially is exactly because it does make me feel good that people use the product. ~ Linus Torvalds

there are some problems no Unix command can address. ~ Aeleen Frisch

There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels ~ Richard Stallman

I have a G4 at home. Theyre great machines for individual users, and I even know a few core Linux hackers who are having a lot of fun with them. But if you want to move the needle on the non-Microsoft desktop, youve got to look elsewhere. ~ Nat Friedman

Android's user-space is so different from stock Linux, you can easily say that Android is not in any way a Linux system, except for the kernel. ~ Robert Love

Everything that I've learned about computers at MIT I have boiled down into three principles: Unix: You think it won't work, but if you find the right wizard, they can make it work. Macintosh: You think it will work, but it won't. PC/Windows: You think it won't work, and it won't. ~ Philip Greenspun

Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it ... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems. ~ John Carmack

Historically speaking, the presence of wheels in Unix has never precluded their reinvention. ~ Larry Wall

Huh? Windows was designed to keep the idiots away from Unix so we could hack in peace. Let's not break that. ~ Tom Christiansen

In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist. ~ Neal Stephenson

The situation is so much better for programmers today - a cheap used PC, a linux CD, and an internet account, and you have all the tools necessary to work your way to any level of programming skill you want to shoot for. ~ John Carmack

Android is very different from the GNU/Linux operating system because it contains very little of GNU. Indeed, just about the only component in common between Android and GNU/Linux is Linux, the kernel. ~ Richard Stallman

I remarked to Dennis that easily half the code I was writing in Multics was error recovery code. He said, "We left all that stuff out of Unix. If there's an error, we have this routine called panic, and when it is called, the machine crashes, and you holler down the hall, 'Hey, reboot it.'" ~ Tom Van Vleck

Me trying to make a business around Linux would have been a total disaster. ~ Linus Torvalds

What I actually admire in Perl is its ability to provide a very successful abstraction of the horrible mess that is collectively called Unix. ~ Erik Naggum

I view Linux as something that's not Microsoft-a backlash against Microsoft, no more and no less. ~ Ken Thompson

To Judeans the cross was perhaps the most hated symbol of Roman rule. The deadly silhouette had scarred too many hilltops, signifying the most ignoble of deaths, a lingering torment that carried shame for all who witnessed it. And yet here it was, portraying a hope that transcended their worries and fears. Merely looking at this bit of carved wood lifted Linux beyond himself, carried upon a promise as strong as it was eternal. ~ Davis Bunn

Installing kali linux but don't know about hacking is like getting married but have no idea what is sex. ~ Somoy Rahman

Paul Buchheit: Then you have what we do with PCs, and that's technically pretty challenging - to take this big network of machines that are unreliable and build a big, reliable storage system out of it. ~ Jessica Livingston

Some dreams are meant to be handed over to God. To be remolded and redirected in keeping with his will. Sometimes our plans do not fit with the plans of God. Linux helped ... ~ Janette Oke

Many say that DOS is the dark side [from Star Wars], but actually UNIX is more like the dark side: It's less likely to find the one way to destroy your incredibly powerful machine, and more likely to make upper management choke. ~ Lore Sjoberg

A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack. ~ Andrew S. Tanenbaum

One of the questions I've always hated answering is how do people make money in open source. And I think that Caldera and Red Hat - and there are a number of other Linux companies going public - basically show that yes, you can actually make money in the open-source area. ~ Linus Torvalds

There is a flip side to this. In the Unix world, libraries which are delivered as libraries should come with exerciser programs. ~ Eric S. Raymond

In my experience, telling someone to switch Unix shells for ease of use is like telling him to switch cigarette brands for his health. ~ Chris Espinosa

Linux is a complex example of the wisdom of crowds. It's a good example in the sense that it shows you can set people to work in a decentralized way - that is, without anyone really directing their efforts in a particular direction - and still trust that they're going to come up with good answers. ~ James Surowiecki