What's Wrong with Unix?

aaron240 asks: "When Google published the GLAT (Google Labs Aptitude Test) the Unix question was intriguing. They asked an open-ended question about what is wrong with Unix and how you might fix it. Rob Pike touched on the question in his Slashdot interview from October. What insightful answers did the rest of Slashdot give when they applied to work at Google? To repeat the actual question, 'What's broken with Unix? How would you fix it?'"

Screen is too black...

[raile]

I'm used to reading my system text as a white font on a blue background.

my answer

[ubiquitin]

Q. What's wrong with Unix?
A. All those slashes and dots.

Q. How you would fix it?
A. um, slashdot

Of course!

How to answer the question.

[Tackhead]

> What insightful answers did the rest of Slashdot give when they applied to work at Google? To repeat the actual question, 'What's broken with Unix? How would you fix it?'

"The fact that I have yet to receive significant monetary compensation for working with it. I would fix it by having someone at Google to hire me with a starting offer of $100,000 per year salary and a signing bonus of options for 50,000 shares of pre-IPO Google stock."

Why are you looking at me like that? I figured all the good jobs were gone, so I was trying for a marketing position.

KSpaceDuel

[jkauzlar]

Certainly this component of Linux needs rewritten. Firstly, it is far too difficult to maneuver your ship with the gravity the way it is, and secondly, the bullets go too slowly. Thirdly, it isn't intuitive what the different colored blobs are; its easy to forget what is energy and what is a mine, or something like that.

I would suggest to the KSpaceDuel team that they meet with the KAsteroids team to discuss usability issues. There should also be a cap on how fast you can go, since it is possible to speed up so fast that your spacecraft appears to be moving very slowly (sort of like a tire in motion).

There's only one thing wrong with UNIX:

[gellenburg]

Not everyone's running it.

Laugh.

It's a joke.

Re:Program Installation Locations

[Phleg]

Somebody find this man a package manager.

Simple...

[andreMA]

PROBLEM: SCO exists
SOLUTION: 2 MT airburst over Lindon, UT

Oh, with UNIX, not for UNIX. Never mind.

As you were.

Re:Several frustrating points

[Anonymous Coward]

My good man, all these and more are already fixed in The Hurd!!! Free4Life, baby, yeah!

-- RMS

Re:OS X

[hey]

Lots of people agree that OS X is the best Unix going. So now us Linux fans has something to copy. Lets get started.

Re:Screen is too black...

[deathazre]

STOP ERROR 0x0000073A: SLASHDOT_MODS_DO_NOT_UNDERSTAND_SUBTLE_HUMOR //watch me get modded down for this...

Re:needs some VMS stuff

[tntguy]

I can't count the number of times I've dragged a file to the "Overwrite With Nuls" icon on the desktop. This wouldn't help at all!

Whats wrong with Unix?

[northcat]

Nothing.

Microsoft Aptitude Test (MSAP)

[reflx]

I applied to work at Microsoft. The interviewer asked me: "What's not broken with Windows?" "How would you break it?"

Re:Microsoft Aptitude Test (MSAP)

[utlemming]

Answer: Turn the computer on.

Re:OS X

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes! OS X is a true miracle given to us by his Steveness in all his wisdom and might. Bow down all you heathen Windows and Linux users; he shall cleanse the world in fire and apples; choose well which side of the fence ye dwell on!

That's not just unix. :P

[solios]

It's actually WORSE in the linux community than it is in, say, the IRIX, Solaris or HP/UX camps. Then there's the OS X and Classic MacOS camps, which take the "being an elitist prick" mentality to a whole new level.

Oh, and there's LISP users and HURD developers. Dear fucking gods, they set the standard.

Easy Two Words

[rikkards]

No Balls

Thank you! I'm here all week! Try the Chicken Kiev!

Re:Several frustrating points

[Anonymous Coward]

Elitist? Just because we're better than you? If we were elitist, we would be justified. But we're not.

So shut it, you snivelling, GUI-loving dweeb. You're not good enough for UNIX.

Re:Here's a start:

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

That reminds me of my favorite Windows error message:
Windows - Application Error
The instruction at "0x00403759" referenced memory at "0x202c7971". The memory could not be "read".
Click OK to terminate the program.

The quotes around "read" are what really cracks me up. What can I say, I'm easily amused. Bring on the guru meditation, baby! ;)

Re:In no specific order:

[Bloater]

> -grafics system and font handling

Spell checker needs standardising.

Re:Program Installation Locations

[cosmol]

How is this not better than the current Unix way of doing things?
umm, you have to use a mouse?

Re:That's not just unix. :P

[tulare]

Heh. For a really good time, try going into #debian on freenode [irc] and asking any question, no matter how esoteric. You're bound to get about three or four RTFMs, and one guy who will pmsg you with more helpful information. Note: I just switched to deb after several years of RPM-based distros, and am not a complete n00b here, so the attitude I encountered was offputting to say the least. Imagine sending your grandma in there for help - she'd probably smack you with her purse the next time she saw you!

Re:Several frustrating points

[Cap'n Steve]

"Would you like it if an artist made fun of your pens and call you and your friends BIC people?"

Spoken like a true Papermate dork.

Re:You guys should maybe step back...

[Bush Pig]

I've worked with a couple of MCSEs who weren't morons. Of course, they were Solaris sysadmins who'd got the MCSE as a requirement for some job or other they'd been involved in, but still ...

One of them said he'd had _enormous_ trouble with the MCSE tests, until he figured out the "correct" answers to the questions wasn't the right answer that'd actually solve the problem, it was the answer you'd been taught on the MCSE course.

Re:Something like that...

[Anonymous Coward]

"OS X takes the bullshit out of getting Work Done" -- but I'm a Linux Gentoo fanboy. I don't want to take the Bullshit out of getting work done. In fact, I don't want to get any real work done at all.

Re:That's not just unix. :P

[falkryn]

Funny you mention that, I remember one time being in the datacenter of the college I was attending. Most of it was still running NT4. They mentioned how cost-prohibitive upgrading to 2k would be for them. So I mentioned, how about Linux? The head admin and his henchman laughed, and replied "Linux? Heh, we want a REAL operating system."

And yes, this guy makes a ton of money... There the same people whose network was so malconfigured that doing a ghosting operation in a supposedly private subnet, I managed to take down the ENTIRE network. I mean everything, even the remote campuses!

They then told the president of the college that it had been a hacker attacking the system. :-)

Re:Several frustrating points

[ChaosDiscord]

The lack of ACLs is a major impediment to uptake of Linux in the business community.

"The business community" finds file systems confusing, so they stick everything into one giant directory with nearly worthless filenames. When they want to share a file with someone else they stumble around until they figure out how to turn on sharing and disable any sort of security.

ACLs are great, but most users, including most businesses, wouldn't know what to do with them. Clueful users are the exception, not the rule. Furthermore, anyone with enough of a clue to 1. seriously consider Linux and 2. understand and desire ACLs certainly has enough of a clue to discover that Linux has ACLs [linux.com].