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Comment by sengork | Hacker News Reader

So both creators of C used Windows...

Was probably the cheapest way to get a terminal to unix running at the time. I've been in lots of shops where the given computer is Windows, because that's what the rest of the company runs, and most of my time is spent in terminal windows to unix (Unix long ago, Linux these days).

I recall trying to get actual unix on a PC, back around '94 or '95. I actually contacted the local Sun rep, and it was cumbersome and expensive. I gave up.

ugh. hummingbird. don't remind me.

Yeah, I worked at a largish government agency that ran Hummingbird. We had a mix of AIX servers and Windows clients and Hummingbird was critical for a handful of things. Can't say I have many fond memories about that whole architecture, but it was part of a complex web of software that let us anachronistically hold out against adopting Active Directory.

Oh god now that was a memory I had long repressed. Just wanted to thank you in advance for my nightmares tonight ;)

Me: How much is a sparcstation 10[1] without any accessories?

Sun Rep: Well, give me an idea of what kind of work you're doing and we'll make sure we can get you set up with the right workstation.

Me: How much is a sparcstation 10 without any accessories?

::Repeat::

[1] I gave configuration details - everything needed to ship me exactly the machine I wanted.

Wouldn't Linux or BSD have been available? These screenshots are from 2002, not 1992.

And we're still issued Windows computers, locked down by IT, in 2015. Ritchie's desktop was from home, but it still could have been the path of least resistance in his family. Or maybe liked Windows, or gaming, or Quicken, ...

At the time? 2002? No. Actually, 2002 is when I switched from Linux desktops to OS X. Never really used Windows that much because of how poor the experience was interacting with Unix machines. Still is, really.

I'm quite surprised to see it.

Only insofar as they used them as gateways to other machines. Ritchie was on a Plan 9 box, and Kernighan was in other various machines via X

That's not completely true.

Some anti-Microsoft types (about 15 or 20 years ago) were outraged after it was pointed out that (according to the headers of the posts) Ritchie's posts to the 9fans mailing list were being sent from Microsoft Outlook.

Maybe the lesson here is that people who accomplish a lot tend to be pragmatic?

Not on those screenshots, but C++ creator Stroustrup is also a Windows user.

For some reason every picture I've seen of his office, he's parked in front of a Sun of some sort.

I believe at that time, for the office, he didn't have much choice :)

K&R wrote the book. R(&T) created the language.

Stallman may be the only serious computer user who hasn't paid for a Windows license

And Windows is written in C

Your point is?

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