Andrew S. Tanenbaum Quotes (1944-)

“Fight Features. … The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small.”

“"Linux is a leprosy; …" This statement is not grammatically, politically, or factually correct.”

“If you just want to use the system, instead of hacking on its internals, you don't need source code.”

“I had never engaged in remote multishrink psychoanalysis on this scale before, so it was a fascinating experience.”

“While most people can talk rationally about kernel design and portability, the issue of free-ness is 100% emotional.”

“Writing a portable OS is not much harder than a nonportable one, and all systems should be written with portability in mind these days.”

“System designers who do not allow users to type far ahead ought to be tarred and feathered, or worse yet, be forced to use their own system.”

“However, as every parent of a small child knows, converting a large object into small fragments is considerably easier than the reverse process.”

“Will we soon see President Bush coming to Europe with Richard Stallman and Rick Rashid in tow, demanding that Europe import more American free software?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design :-) […] Writing a new OS only for the 386 in 1991 gets you your second "F" for this term.”

“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.”

“Many security texts decompose the security of an information system in three components: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Together, they are often referred to as "CIA". [They] constitute the core security properties that we must protect against attackers and eavesdroppers—such as the (other) CIA.”