The easiest programs to use are those which demand the least new learning from the user

Of course, C proved indispensible to the developers of all its alternatives. Dig down through enough implementation layers under any of the other languages surveyed here and you will find a core implemented in pure, portable C

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.

Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they're much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity. A language that makes it hard to write elegant code makes it hard to write good code.

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.

Complexity control is the central problem of writing software in the real world

Why the hell hasn't wxPython become the standard GUI for Python yet?