Andrew S. Tanenbaum

1944– · American-Dutch computer scientist

Topics: software design, software engineering, complexity, unix

• Microkernels are not a pipe dream. They represent proven technology.

  — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

• 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.

  — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

• 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

• 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

• The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from.

  — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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

  — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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

  — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

• 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

• 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