The UNIX-HATERS Handbook

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The UNIX-HATERS Handbook

Author	Simson Garfinkel Daniel Weise Steven Strassmann
Publisher	IDG Books
Publication date	1994

The UNIX-HATERS Handbook is a semi-humorous edited compilation of messages to the UNIX-HATERS mailing list. The book was edited by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise and Steven Strassmann and published in 1994. The book was made available to download for free in electronic format in 2003.^[1]

The book concerns the frustrations of users to the Unix operating system. Many users had come from systems that they felt were far more sophisticated in computer science terms, and were tremendously frustrated by the worse is better design philosophy that they felt Unix and much of its software encapsulated.

This book was printed as a trade paperback. Its front cover was designed to be similar to The Scream. An air sickness bag, printed with the phrase "UNIX barf bag", was inserted into the inside back cover of every copy, by the publisher.

[edit] Table of Contents

Foreword, by Donald Norman
Preface
Anti-Foreword, by Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of Unix, which denigrates the book's concept.

Part 1 --- User Friendly?

1 Unix. The World's First Computer Virus
2 Welcome, New User! Like Russian Roulette with Six Bullets Loaded
3 Documentation? What Documentation?
4 Mail. Don't Talk to Me, I'm Not a Typewriter
5 Snoozenet. I Post, Therefore I Am
6 Terminal Insanity. Curses! Foiled Again!
7 The X-Windows Disaster. How to Make a 50-MIPS Workstation Run Like a 4.77MHz IBM PC (A chapter on the X Window System, written by Don Hopkins)

Part 2 --- Programmer's System?

8 csh, pipes, and find. Power Tools for Power Fools
9 Programming. Hold Still, This Won't Hurt a Bit
10 C++. The COBOL of the 90s

Part 3 --- Sysadmin's Nightmare

11 System Administration. Unix's Hidden Cost
12 Security. Oh, I'm Sorry, Sir, Go Ahead, I didn't Realize You Were Root
13 The File System. Sure It Corrupts Your Files, But Look How Fast It Is!
14 NFS. Nightmare File System

Part 4 --- Et Cetera

A Epilogue. Enlightenment Through Unix
B Creators Admit C, Unix Were Hoax
C The Rise of Worse is Better, by Richard P. Gabriel (an essay on the design differences between the so-called MIT/Stanford style and the so-called New Jersey approach.)
D Bibliography