Andrew S. Tanenbaum Quotes

#1. 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

#2. Linux is a leprosy; ... This statement is not grammatically or factually correct.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#3. 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

#4. Fight Features. ... The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#5. 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

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

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#7. 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

#8. The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#9. A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#10. 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

#11. XML combines the efficiency of text files with the readability of binary files

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#12. Microkernels are not a pipe dream. They represent proven technology.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#13. 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

#14. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#15. 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

#16. A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#17. I can type faster than I can point. And my mother told me that pointing
is impolite.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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

Andrew S. Tanenbaum

#19. 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

#20. 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

#21. 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

#22. I really am not angry with Linus. Honest. He's not angry with me either.

Andrew S. Tanenbaum