The UNIX-haters handbook
by Simson Garfinkel · first published 1994
45% recommend51% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Funny, ranty critique of Unix design flaws, with the X Windows chapter and the preface essays singled out. Readers value its history and eye-opening perspective, even if they are Unix fans themselves.
Common criticism: Dated in places, and the X Windows chapter is called weak or wrong
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2026A Quarter Century of UNIX
Peter H. Salus
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 187 recommend · 18 mention7 recommend · 187 recommend
2010–2026UNIX
Brian W. Kernighan
Recommended by 14 · mentioned by 2314 recommend · 23 mention14 recommend · 2314 recommend
2007–2026The art of UNIX programming
Eric S. Raymond
Recommended by 85 · mentioned by 15685 recommend · 156 mention85 recommend · 15685 recommend
2009–2026The AWK programming language
Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, Peter Weinberger
Recommended by 61 · mentioned by 7961 recommend · 79 mention61 recommend · 7961 recommend
2007–2026In the Beginning...Was the Command Line
Neal Stephenson
Recommended by 52 · mentioned by 11052 recommend · 110 mention52 recommend · 11052 recommend
2007–2026Patterns of software
Richard P. Gabriel
Recommended by 31 · mentioned by 4031 recommend · 40 mention31 recommend · 4031 recommend
2015–2026The Go Programming Language
Alan A. A. Donovan, Brian W. Kernighan
Recommended by 40 · mentioned by 8040 recommend · 80 mention40 recommend · 8040 recommend
2007–2026The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie
Recommended by 246 · mentioned by 501246 recommend · 501 mention246 recommend · 501246 recommend
For an alternative view, don't forget to read the section on Pipes of The Unix-Haters Handbook: http://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf (page 198)
on “For the Love of Pipes” ↗That's interesting, because I also feel people don't appreciate computing history appropriately. If you'd care to learn some real history, I suggest you read The UNIX-HATERS Handbook: http://web.mit.edu/%7Esimsong/www/ugh.pdf With this book, you'll learn that UNIX and C are nothing admirable and have actually been responsible for successfully destroying much better systems and languages…
on “Unix: A History and a Memoir, by Brian Kernighan” ↗…systems. I have never done this, perhaps because I remember the early days of OS/platform wars (Amiga or Atari? PC or console? Unix or VMS?), first on BBSes, then on Usenet. I also, early on, read the Unix-Haters Handbook, and I found it enlightening, even though it is not always spot-on. I leave all die-hard advocates with this quote: “All Software Sucks, All Hardware Sucks” (http://www.absurdnotions.org/an20010622.gif)…
on “Systemd Sucks, Long Live Systemd” ↗If you haven't run across it before, google up The Unix-Haters Handbook for an entertaining book-length rebuttal.
on “lsix: ls for images” ↗…designed for teletype machines, not graphic displays. * textual interface mixes control and data planes * limited APIs for threading/fibers/etc. There is an old and somewhat out of date book called the Unix Haters Handbook. It's worth a read. Plan 9 needs to be thought of as a "Unix evolution", not a different OS. For a perspective on what would be different and possibly better, you will need to look at z/OS, Windows…
on “Haiku Operating System” ↗A while? You must have never read the UNIX-HATERS Handbook (http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf), which should be required reading for any unix fan, along with the Plan9 design documents (cat-v.org). In this case, "the X Windows disaster" chapter seems most appropriate. Feel free to ignore the VMS fanboys, though. And yes, I am a dedicated unix (OpenBSD) user.
on “Ubuntu To Ditch X Server For Wayland” ↗One of these days you should read the X section of the Unix Haters Handbook. Wayland is being built for the world as it is, X was built for a world that never was. In this case, it’s quite hard to not be better designed.
on “The X.Org Server Is Abandonware?” ↗Reading the rant from John Rose in the preface to THE UNIX-HATERS Handbook [1] was pretty eye-opening to me. The world that John is complaining about is the world that I've spent many years living in, quite happily too! How is it that we lost the ability to fix the code to…
on “Lisp Machines” ↗This reminds me so much of the UNIX Hater's Handbook, which argues that this attitude ("it's just a rite of passage", "it is better now anyway") is a result of growing up in a world where the design errors of UNIX are seen as features. I don't know yet, but it is an inspiring read nonetheless: http://www.simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf
on “Distrusting git” ↗…Whilst I pick on a couple, there's been innumerable packages, languages and platforms over the years that have had their share of what could politely be called idiosyncrasies. I highly recommend The Unix Haters Handbook [1] for plenty of historic examples -it's a lovely read -oh, and for years one of the *nix bullet points was always "all the power in the world and not a safety in sight" [2] [1] The Unix Haters Handbook:…
on “A call to PHP's mt_rand generates only odd numbers” ↗…unwilling) ignorance of the past. Since this community basically controls the Internet, it's hard for voices expressing some restraint and thoughtfulness to get trough the noise. And I really do recommend The Unix-Haters Handbook. Funny thing is - over a decade ago, when I was acquainting myself with the Linux world (after many years of DOS and Windows experience), I've been noticing and complaining about various things that felt…
on “The average size of Web pages is now the average size of a Doom install” ↗The Unix Haters Handbook may be old, but it's a glorious combination of humor and legitimate commentary. I read it years ago while on a vacation, and I don't think I've ever laughed as much while reading any other book, ever. Here's a link to the book in its full glory: http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf
on “X: The First Fully Modular Software Disaster” ↗…(other than their outrageous price) is that while they were very cool, they were also incredibly slow compared to commercial Unix systems written in C. This is actually addressed in the preface to the Unix Haters Handbook[1] (ctrl-f "Michael Travers" to get to the relevant part), which is written by someone who had to move from working on a Lisp machine to a VAX workstation. It's a great (and humorous) read and kind of…
on “Guile Steel: a proposal for a systems Lisp” ↗.. and this is also required reading (while we are on the topic..) http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf
on “The Shell Haters Handbook” ↗As much as I love the Unix-Haters handbook, the more I learn about X the more I disagree with that chapter. X's memory consumption is totally reasonable for something that has to manage screen and window buffers (I doubt this proposed project…
on “Ubuntu To Ditch X Server For Wayland” ↗