What's Wrong with Unix?

aaron240 asks: "When Google published the GLAT (Google Labs Aptitude Test) the Unix question was intriguing. They asked an open-ended question about what is wrong with Unix and how you might fix it. Rob Pike touched on the question in his Slashdot interview from October. What insightful answers did the rest of Slashdot give when they applied to work at Google? To repeat the actual question, 'What's broken with Unix? How would you fix it?'"

Comments

Re:Program Installation Locations

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why you use a package management tool, you moron.

Re:zerg

[Lord Omlette]

s/home/hope

What's the point in having a preview button if you're never going to use it, IDIOT.

Re:OS X

[stupidfoo]

I would have to say that most of the things that *NIX did poorly have been rectified with OS X

I would imagine that the question pertains more to use as a server OS than a easy to use, pretty widgets OS.

Re:Several frustrating points

[killjoe]

If you are a windows person don't try and install BSD. BSD is not designed for you.

Get xandros and install that. It's the ideal distro for windows people.

Re:8-bit UI unusable in a 32-bit world

[the_2nd_coming]

dude.. piping is a ton more powerful than windows clicks.. get over your GUI elitism.

Re:Several frustrating points

[killjoe]

The guy can't install freebsd (a 20 minute process for most people). I reccomended xandros which my dog could install and use.

What's wrong with that?

Single, standard, universal plain text format:

[GCP]

Likewise not standardising some basic data-interchange formats (Even it was just pre-formated ASCII)...

Define the standard *nix system text encoding to be UTF-8. Require every tool to assume UTF-8 when no encoding or other modifiers are specified, and make UTF-8 support a requirement for every tool that wants to participate in the chaining/piping operations that are the backbone of *nix.

Terminal programs, terminal servers, shells, system fonts, cut/copy/paste, file system, GUIs, editors, ...ALL use the same, consistent, universal plain text format everywhere, in every language. All characters, all the time, in all applications, on all forms of *nix.

X windows

[D0 J00 W4n7 K4r473]

X windows:

The ultimate bottleneck.
Flawed beyond belief.
The only thing you have to fear.
Somewhere between chaos and insanity.
On autopilot to oblivion.
The joke that kills.
A disgrace you can be proud of.
A mistake carried out to perfection.
Belongs more to the problem set than the solution set.
To err is X windows.
Ignorance is our most important resource.
Complex nonsolutions to simple nonproblems.
Built to fall apart.
Nullifying centuries of progress.
Falling to new depths of inefficiency.
The last thing you need.
The defacto substandard.

Elevating brain damage to an art form.

X windows.