It is not amazingly surprising to see Richard Stallman feature so prominently on this list. Not because he has done so much for UN*X (or so little, for that matter), but because People Know Richard Stallman. They know his name, he has featured prominently in the media in the last couple of years, and projects his name is (still) attached to are doing well.
As to his contribution to UN*X? I have no idea. I'm a newcomer to the wonderful world of SunOS, HP-UX, Solaris, *BSD and linux, I did my first man man in '93, I had my first root in '96, and I feel a lot of the Big Things In UN*X (tm) happened before my time.
I think it is a fundamental thing with these kind of lists that they pretty much always overvalue recent contributions/songs/films/ice-cream flavours, at the expense of older ones. A lot of people only catch on later, and will not remember the first tottering steps, the first breakthroughs, because they simply weren't there yet. They will go for the more recent accomplishments, the things they *did* witness.
So, lists like this are fun, and interesting, but I have my doubts as to their value for actually determining the impact that developments have had, the relative importance of UN*X moments.
> And the very worst of those killers -- the ones we all should fear the most -- seem to be less > fixated on guns than you are. > Does that sound smart to you?
And what do you consider to be the smarter option: ranking the badness of groups of killers based on
- the average number of people they kill
or
- the average number of people times the number of killers?
Remember, if a car hits a tree it will kill something like 3 people. If a plane crashes it can easily kill 200 or more people. Still, more people die in car crashes than in plane crashes.
The Happy Disciple -- If guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns. Meaning that J. Innocent Person cannot snap, grab a gun and go out on a killing spree, which is a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
It is not amazingly surprising to see Richard Stallman feature so prominently on this list. Not because he has done so much for UN*X (or so little, for that matter), but because People Know Richard Stallman. They know his name, he has featured prominently in the media in the last couple of years, and projects his name is (still) attached to are doing well.
As to his contribution to UN*X? I have no idea. I'm a newcomer to the wonderful world of SunOS, HP-UX, Solaris, *BSD and linux, I did my first man man in '93, I had my first root in '96, and I feel a lot of the Big Things In UN*X (tm) happened before my time.
I think it is a fundamental thing with these kind of lists that they pretty much always overvalue recent contributions/songs/films/ice-cream flavours, at the expense of older ones. A lot of people only catch on later, and will not remember the first tottering steps, the first breakthroughs, because they simply weren't there yet. They will go for the more recent accomplishments, the things they *did* witness.
So, lists like this are fun, and interesting, but I have my doubts as to their value for actually determining the impact that developments have had, the relative importance of UN*X moments.
Jos "numbers, I want numbers!" D.
> And the very worst of those killers -- the ones we all should fear the most -- seem to be less
> fixated on guns than you are.
> Does that sound smart to you?
And what do you consider to be the smarter option: ranking the badness of groups of killers based on
- the average number of people they kill
or
- the average number of people times the number of killers?
Remember, if a car hits a tree it will kill something like 3 people. If a plane crashes it can easily kill 200 or more people. Still, more people die in car crashes than in plane crashes.
The Happy Disciple
--
If guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns.
Meaning that J. Innocent Person cannot snap, grab a gun and go out on a killing spree, which is a good thing.