The hitherto anonymous votemaster at the excellent “electoral-vote.com”:http://www.electoral-vote.com/ website “has outed himself”:http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/votemaster-faq.html . He is Andrew Tanenbaum, professor of computer science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and already mildly famous as the author of MINIX (an important precursor of Linux).
{ 12 comments }
Keith M Ellis 11.01.04 at 3:19 pm
Several of his books are standard CS texts, particularly “Structured Computer Organization” which is very good and widely used intoductory text. The MINIX thing is notable because of his famous USENET argument with Torvalds. (In spite of Linux’s success, I still think that Tannenbaum was right that the microkernel architecture is superior.)
I’m not sure what this says about his competency at something like electoral-vote.com. Probably something more negative than positive. He’s a sharp guy, though, no question about that.
Duane 11.01.04 at 3:45 pm
For those who aren’t familiar with the history, it should also be noted that Linus used Tannenbaum’s standard OS text as his main reference when writing the first versions of Linux. At the Webmaster FAQ on the site Tannenbaum describes MINIX as the precursor to Linux, which I think Linus would agree with. He is a very important figure in the history of computer science and OS design, although to what extent that speaks to his credibility regarding the web-site you’ll have to decide for yourselves.
Oh, and for the record, I disagree with Keith as to the merits of a Microkernel architecture for a general purpose OS. But I suppose we should save that discussion for another time and place. :)
Sumana 11.01.04 at 4:32 pm
That’s unexpected, eliciting a “wow” from me.
Keith M Ellis 11.01.04 at 5:17 pm
In that USENET debate, if I recall correctly (I haven’t reread it since I first read it years ago), Torvalds describes how his experience with MINIX preceded his little experiment in creating Linux. My impression is that “precursor to Linux” is not exactly how he would describe it. “Inspiration for Linux” might be closer.
Walt Pohl 11.01.04 at 5:28 pm
Mildly famous! What kind of twisted value system do they have in your world? In my world, Tanenbaum is slightly more famous than Mick Jagger.
ben wolfson 11.01.04 at 6:04 pm
Keith, why is it a negative?
Jonathan Goldberg 11.01.04 at 6:56 pm
AT is also the author of an outstanding text on networks, from which I learned much of what (not too much, really) I know about the subject. It is the source of the classic observation “The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose.”
Jonathan Goldberg 11.01.04 at 6:58 pm
AT is also the author of an outstanding text on networks, from which I learned much of what (not too much, really) I know about the subject. It is the source of the classic observation “The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose.”
Shai 11.01.04 at 7:53 pm
yeah, lol. i had my tannenbaum networks text on my desk as I read that. no joke.
Nicholas Weininger 11.01.04 at 7:57 pm
And:
“Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.”
Andrew McManama-Smith 11.02.04 at 12:31 am
AAAAAHHH!
I hate that stupid hardware class and that awful “Structured Computer Organisation” that was my least favourite class form undergrad!
Curses to Andrew Tanenbaum!
Martin Wisse 11.02.04 at 4:21 pm
Aah, but have you followed his classes in person? Incomprehensible in Dutch or English…
Cool news though.
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