“The X server has to be the biggest program I've ever seen that doesn't do anything for you.”

—  Ken Thompson

Thompson later followed up: "I now realize that X was just miles ahead in its programming style." http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=7f3&t=7f3.44
Plan 9 fortune file (1992)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The X server has to be the biggest program I've ever seen that doesn't do anything for you." by Ken Thompson?
Ken Thompson photo
Ken Thompson 28
American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating … 1943

Related quotes

William S. Burroughs photo

“England has the most sordid literary scene I've ever seen. They all meet in the same pub. This guy's writing a foreword for this person. They all have to give radio programs, they have to do all this just to scrape by. They're all scratching each other's backs.”

William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer

Forbes (2 April 2001), p. 172

“The goal of is to improve encapsulation. It does so by viewing a program in terms of the client/server model.”

Rebecca Wirfs-Brock (1953) American software engineer

Source: Object-oriented design: a responsibility-driven approach (1989), p. 72

Caitlín R. Kiernan photo

“I've seen so goddamn much — I've seen so much that there's no reasonable excuse for looking away, because there can't be anything left that's more terrible than what has come before.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

Houses Under the Sea (2007)

“I don’t think I've ever made up anything, everything has happened. Nothing's made up. You don't have to make anything up in this world.”

Thomas Harris (1940) American author and screenwriter
TotalBiscuit photo

“"We will not join enemy server." [catches himself] "'Enemy server', what? Let's try that again—empty server. I do want enemies."”

TotalBiscuit (1984–2018) British game commentator

WTF Is…? series, Insurgency (standalone) (January 29, 2014)

“If I've learned anything in my life, it's that God has the habit of asking you to do the very thing you think you can't do.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 123

Ray Ozzie photo

“All programs in the future will be written in a way that there is no single point of failure. There's no one server that can die and take down the service.”

Ray Ozzie (1955) American businessman

Ray Ozzie's view from the clouds http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10400244-56.html in CNET (18 November 2009).

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo

“Teach her that if you criticize X in women but do not criticize X in men, then you do not have a problem with X, you have a problem with women.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie book Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Source: Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Willie Nelson photo

“I have this kind of philosophy that I can't do anything about what happened yesterday, or what's going to happen tomorrow. But I feel in full control of what's going on now. I think worry will make you sick. I've never seen it accomplish anything. I've never seen worrying about anything change it. So I decided not to do it. If you can't do anything about it, why in the hell worry about it? Every negative thought you have releases poison into your system, and will kill you or give you cancer, or tumors or whatever else you can think of. So if you are thinking negative about anything, erase that.”

Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.

Willie Nelson On Eggs, Martial Arts & Living A Life Without Worry, Southern Living, Lifestyle Network, January 2017, February 22, 2017 http://www.southernliving.com/culture/celebrities/willie-nelson-interview-video,

Elton John photo

“So excuse me forgetting but these things I do
You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is what I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

Source: Song Your Song

Related topics