Yeah right, nice program there. No matter how friendly you are to world, there is always a new language evolving and people pick up this new phrase - "You are not a genuine computer scientist unless you know the Blah-blah-blah computer language!" (as quoted by TWH)
I mean, why do computer lanuguages suddenly spring up, out of the blue and we as computer scientists or engineers (on a more 'guy-ish' term) have to learn it? Well, that is life in the ever-evolving techno world.
So now, we have this new stuff about UNIX to learn. I personally like UNIX so far. Please underline the phrase so far because UNIX after all still involves programming! As quoted by TWH, you can't be a computer scientist if you choose to keep your fingers squeky clean. Thus, how much torture or love will UNIX offer? Am yet to learn it from the great TWH. But for now, let me give a short glimpse of UNIX from my mind chambers.
If I wasn't sleeping during the first lecture, this is what I learnt.
As far as we know, UNIX has been around even before I was born (i.e. even before 1988). There used to be people who thought graphics was rubbish and a true computer scientist must be able to perform operations without the help of graphics. Ok, what do I mean by graphics? They are your nice little icons, menu bars, cursors, application applets etc. So, imagine living without them - that was the UNIX time!
But then, a great guy called Bill Gates came along. Good thing he ran away from Harvard to establish Microsoft. With microsoft and its cool graphics, the tables suddenly switched.
And as history falls into place, Microsoft thrived and Bill Gates became rich enough to donate heaps of cash to support the Aids Relief in Africa. But will the UNIX people rest in peace? Nah! This is where the fun part comes in.
You know this great man called Linus Torvalds, he came along and created Linux! Now, Linux was exactly like Microsoft. It had all the nice graphics. What more? Other programmers, all around the cute little globe, could join in Linus' venture to outwit Microsoft! As Linux was an open-source software, anyone could contribute to it. Slowly, organisations like ubuntu set up Microsoft Office-like applications in Linux!
Now, what's so great you may ask. The fact is, Linux functions with UNIX. Got that? UNIX itself, is made of three major roles - the core (which is called the Kernel), the Shell and the tools and applications.
Today, UNIX is used for mant projects especially those that involve saving ship-fulls of cash. So, UNIX = save money.
That's all for now.
And for my dear IT geeks (excluding myself because my programming skills are questionable) out there, if you find some technical/historical faults in my entry please comment! And did you know? Linus' wife, Tove Torvalds was a six-time karate champion in Finland? So, don't comment anything about Linus!
