Andrew Tanenbaum Quotes & Sayings

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever. — George Orwell

The idea of reputation, influence, and influencers in the offline world is as old as the hills. It's not new on the web either, but semantic search is creating a portable sense of identity, reputation, and influence that in the days before it simply did not exist. And this is changing everything — David Amerland

I was more alone than if I had been alone. — Jonathan Safran Foer

A couple of years ago this guy called Ken Brown wrote a book saying that Linus stole Linux from me It later came out that Microsoft had paid him to do this — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Microkernels are not a pipe dream. They represent proven technology. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I won't tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world's voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely - or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose! — Oscar Wilde

I have a mouse, but don't have a mouse driver for MINIX and have never felt the need to write one. Typing "rm x y z" is a lot faster than clicking five times and then having to convince the system that you really, truly, mean it and this is not a mistake and that you are consenting adult over 18 and that you completely understand the consequences and you still want to do it. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Seeing with better eyes We can recognize that the offender is a valuable human being who struggles with the same needs, pressures, and confusions that we struggle with. We will recognize that the incident really may not have been about us in the first place. Instead it was about the wrongdoer's misguided attempt to meet his or her own needs. As we regard offenders from this point of view (regardless of whether they repent and regardless of what they have done or suffered), we will be in a position to forgive them. — Elbert Hubbard

XML combines the efficiency of text files with the readability of binary files — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

However, as every parent of a small child knows, converting a large object into small fragments is considerably easier than the reverse process. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Linux is a leprosy; ... This statement is not grammatically or factually correct. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself. — Dorothy Canfield Fisher

A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Enormous oak trees towered over the boulevard, which boasted homes with fine woodwork, wraparound porches, and moss on the sidewalks. 'There's nothing like a house in New Orleans. Would you look at those balconies and columns?' He rolled his window down to take in the sounds of life in New Orleans. — Hunter Murphy

Unfortunately, the current generation of mail programs do not have checkers to see if the sender knows what he is talking about. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

We were Dex and Perry and our relationship seemed to thrive on the universe being out of order. Either that or our relationship actually caused the world to turn upside down. It was hard to say. — Karina Halle

I can type faster than I can point. And my mother told me that pointing
is impolite. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Most songs that aren't jump-rope songs, or lullabies, are cautionary tales or goodbye songs and road songs. — Tom Waits

Our galaxy's pretty ordinary, garden-variety. So if we believe our galaxy has a super massive black hole, that tells us that most, if not all, galaxies host such a black hole at their centers. — Andrea M. Ghez

A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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

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. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Stay cool, and wait for opportunity. — Tibor Fischer

It is precisely because the world appears to us to be multiple, ambiguous, and paradoxical, that we must strive to speak and write clearly. — Mark Dintenfass

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

I've been fascinated by the world ever since I read 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain. I've watched 'Top Chef' and watched interviews with chefs on 'Charlie Rose' ... I thought they're really intriguing characters, and they really encapsulate that tension between vision and commerce, art and commerce. — Jon Favreau

I passed two idle days, watching fruitlessly.
I took to my hasty pacing to and fro again and succeeded, not without difficulty, in gaining a few days of respite, in making myself forget for a while.
I dwelt within these walls quiet in a feverish sort of way and inactive as a prisoner. I walked up and down my room a great part of the day, attracted by the opening in the wall and not daring to go away to a distance from it again.
The long hours went by, and in the evening I was worn out by my indefatigable hope. — Henri Barbusse

If anyone had realized that within 10 years this tiny system that was picked up almost by accident was going to be controlling 50 million computers, considerably more thought might have gone into it. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Fight Features. ... The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

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. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I had never engaged in remote multishrink psychoanalysis on this scale before, so it was a fascinating experience. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

With current technology it is possible to put four floppy disk drives in a personal computer. It is just that doing so would be pointless. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I really am not angry with Linus. Honest. He's not angry with me either. — Andrew S. Tanenbaum