Prof. Andy Tanenbaum Retires From Vrije University

When Linus Torvalds first announced his new operating system project ("just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu"), he aimed the announcement at users of Minix for a good reason: Minix (you can download the latest from the Minix home page) was the kind of OS that tinkerers could afford to look at, and it was intended as an educational tool. Minix's creator, Professor Andrew Stuart "Andy" Tanenbaum, described his academic-oriented microkernel OS as a hobby, too, in the now-famous online discussion with Linus and others. New submitter Thijssss (655388) writes with word that Tanenbaum, whose educational endeavors led indirectly to the birth of Linux, is finally retiring. "He has been at the Vrije Universiteit for 43 years, but everything must eventually end."

Comments

Re:A legend of OS design

[retchdog]

no, you have it all wrong. traditional education is just state power keeping progress down.

true capitalist geniuses like Linus would have done just as well, and even provably better because of free markets, if we abolished education completely. imagine how much better Linux would be today, if Linus were not shackled by the vestiges of religion.