Top 15 Andrew S. Tanenbaum Quotes

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

If you just want to use the system, instead of hacking on its internals, you don't need source code.

Will we soon see President Bush coming to Europe with Richard Stallman and Rick Rashid in tow, demanding that Europe import more American free software?

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

Writing a portable OS is not much harder than a nonportable one, and all systems should be written with portability in mind these days.

A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack.

Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design <code>:-)</code> […] Writing a new OS only for the 386 in 1991 gets you your second "F" for this term.

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.

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.

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

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.

"Linux is a leprosy; …" This statement is not grammatically, politically, or factually correct.

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.

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.

"He" should be read as "he or she" throughout the book.