If Unix could present the same face, the same capabilities, on machines of many different types, it could serve as a common software environment for all of them.

Linux evolved in a completely different way. From nearly the beginning, it was rather casually hacked on by huge numbers of volunteers coordinating only through the Internet.

Microsoft is not the problem. Microsoft is the symptom.

Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry

Often, the most striking and innovative solutions come from realizing that your concept of the problem was wrong.

Any tool should be useful in the expected way, but a truly great tool lends itself to uses you never expected.

We hackers are a playful bunch; we'll hack anything, including language, if it looks like fun (thus our tropism for puns). Deep down, we like confusing people who are stuffier and less mentally agile than we are, especially when they're bosses. There's a little bit of the mad scientist in all hackers, ready to discombobulate the world and flip authority the finger - especially if we can do it with snazzy special effects.