Mendalla
Another IT big gun is gone
Posted on: 10/14/2011 13:36
After the death of Steve Job last week, the passing of Dennis Ritchie has gone largely unnoticed outside of the IT community. And yet, in his quiet way, Mr. Ritchie was probably more important than Jobs, especially if you're a software developer or other IT insider. In short, Dennis Ritchie created the C programming language and, in cooperation with Bell Labs colleague Ken Thompson (now an engineer at Google), created the Unix operating system.
C is still a widely used language for writing everything from operating systems (including Unix, DOS, and Windows) to apps. While the original Unix has kind of gotten lost in the shuffle from a popular standpoint, a Unix kernel powers Mac OS/X (Apple's current desktop and laptop computer operating system) and the Linux operating system, which is the basis for Google's Android and Chrome operating systems, was written in emulation of Unix. Dennis Ritchie retired in 2007 after 30 years with Bell Labs.
In short, Dennis was the guy who created the tools that allowed the Steve Jobses of the world to accomplish what they did.
RIP,
Mendalla
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sighsnootles
Posted on: 10/14/2011 13:39
sorry to hear that, mendella...
i am such a luddite that i have no idea what it was that you said about him, but i know enough to know that without intelligent people, i wouldn't be able to even tell you how sorry i am here.
i have faith that IT guys will continue to rise and do great things, though.
Mendalla
Posted on: 10/14/2011 14:45
sorry to hear that, mendella...
i am such a luddite that i have no idea what it was that you said about him, but i know enough to know that without intelligent people, i wouldn't be able to even tell you how sorry i am here.
That's the reason he isn't getting the press that Jobs did. It's easy to understand that Jobs started the company that sold us our Mac or our iPhone. It's harder to grasp that those cool toys exist at least partly because of software tools created by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson almost a decade before Apple was even founded.
Mendalla
Witch
Posted on: 10/14/2011 14:14
In addition, Unix created the Internet (as opposed to Al Gore ;-) )
Most of the Internet above the level of the home user, and practically all the Internet at any level over the ISP, runs on Unix or one of it's derivatives.
sighsnootles
Posted on: 10/15/2011 08:24
unix could have chosen a better name, though... i still laugh when i think of that 'dilbert' cartoon where the nurse comes to his cubicle saying that the company needs some 'eunuchs' programmers...