Unix has retarded OS research by 10 years and linux has retarded it by 20.

I've done a reasonable amount of travelling, which I enjoyed, but not for too long at a time. I'm a home-body and get fatigued by it fairly soon, but enjoy thinking back on experiences when I've returned and then often wish I'd arranged a longer stay in the somewhat exotic place.

From an operating system research point of view, Unix is if not dead certainly old stuff, and it's clear that people should be looking beyond it.

Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson. Unix was basically his, likewise C's predecessor, likewise much of the basis of Plan 9 (though Rob Pike was the real force in getting it together). And in the meantime Ken created the first computer chess master and pretty much rewrote the book on chess endgames. He is quite a phenomenon.

UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.

At least for the people who send me mail about a new language that they're designing, the general advice is: do it to learn about how to write a compiler

Obviously, the person who had most influence on my career was Ken Thompson.