Contemplating the Unix-nature Was: [H-GEN] What is Unix?

[The memory remains]

On Mon, 24 Nov 1997, Anthony Towns wrote:

> This being a _Unix_ club and all, am I being an evil being when I
> bring navy (the BeBox) to meetings?

	Dear child.  Do not ask, "Is my box worthy to be called a Unix 
machine?".  Instead ask your own nature "Is my person, is my mind a Unix 
machine?".  The Unix nature is not enstilled in an operating system, be 
it kernel or tool-set.  That was merely the beginning.  The old testament 
of Unix held the operating system as core, and this is still mostly true 
to this day.  It must be understood, however that the operating system is 
not the end of Unix, nor even the start of it.  The operating system is 
an expression of the Unix within you.

	You are Unix, and Unix is you.  Whatever system you use, be it the 
Linux offered by the holy finnish priests, or even to the depths of 
windows.  As you use a login, it becomes crafted to your touch, and 
becomes Unix.

	It is not true to say that this box is Unix, or is not Unix, 
only to say that the administrator is Unix, or is not Unix.  Beware, my 
child, when decievers come among you saying "You must use Linux to become 
true Unix".  They are liars and heathens.  May you tear your clothes, and 
work for microsoft rather than live that lie.  It is not the nature of 
your tools, whether your dialect says "copy" or "cp", but the nature of 
your own soul.  Examine yourself closely.

	Do not be fooled either, my child, by those who say "See? Here is the 
win32 unix toolkit. You can make your windows Unix".  I say to you, it 
is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of the needle than for a 
windows user to be called Unix.

	A BeBox, or any other box is as Unix as you are.

	This one proviso.  The one determiner for whether a base is Unix, or 
is without Unix is those who created the base distribution.  It can be 
said that debian Linux, or the BeBox, or the FreeBSD all are Unix by 
nature.  This nature is that of those who crafted it.  It may never be 
said that a vanilla windows install is Unix.  When windows is installed, 
only the hardiest Unix can fight the evil that already infests it.  The 
evil that lies at the heart of all microsoft programs, and programmers.  
It takes alot of Unix, to fight that war.  Most Unixers can only nibble 
at their logins on windows boxen for many years, engaging in a kind of 
gurrilla warfare agains the anti-Unix within the product it's self.  
Luckily the system is away from the source of anti-Unix, and is thus able 
to be slowly crafted into a semblance of Unix.  It can never be wholly 
transformed, however, since the anti-Unix is to strong for all but the 
hacker who is able to rewrite windows OS code.  Those heros usually don't 
live long enough when exposed to microsoft products to complete this kind 
of delicate work.

	My child.  Choose the surroundings that compliment your own Unix, 
and bring it into fruition.  The best source of this complimentary Unix 
is that of Free software.  Use it wisely.  Use it in power.

	I must speak now of the windows users who have entered our meetings.  
I have seen many things in my lifetime.  Many breeches of freedom.  I 
have seen collapses of society so vile as to burden my every breath.  A 
child learns of warez, and of porn and finds them to be good.  They are 
good because nothing else is known.  When a child matures and becomes an 
adult, these things fall away as the true prices of freedom are 
established.  As the Unix within each one of us grows, we realise that 
warez are so pointless that without a thought they are stripped from us, 
cleansing our bodies and our minds.

	There are those among us, however, that have not reached the 
maturity level of adult computer usage.  Those who not only suck warez, 
but warez for -windows-.  This travesty weighs so heavily on my mind 
that I feel I may not continue.  I feel I may not, but I must.  

	Not only do these people flout their immaturity, but by their 
activity, promise that they can never grow up.  They can never be Unix, 
for they do not have Unix within them.  They are Unix-less, and will 
remain so for their sorry, windows-filled lives.

	<my soul weeps>

        The memory remains <memory at humbug.org.au>

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	The game of loneliness takes it's toll

        Web page at http://student.uq.edu.au/~s335810

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