[PLUG] Why = history (was Re: ...PLUG Central - "OpenVPN" by Keith C. Perry (7pm at USP))

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

On 11/05/2015 10:00 PM, Mike DePaulo wrote:
[...]
> I have recently come to learn that many designs we encounter today do
> not make sense at all unless you understand the history of prior
> designs. Keith's talk was the perfect demonstration of this.

Yes!  I've always wanted to know "why" partly because I'm just curious
and partly because it helps me understand and remember.  I find that is
especially true in the Unix/Linux world, which has such a neat history
and does have solid reasons for almost all of the stuff that looks odd
today.  (I suspect the same for medicine and law, but can't prove it.)

For my money, the best books on this are:
1) _Absolute FreeBSD_
2) _UNIX Power Tools_
3) _Essential System Administration_

If you only get one, get _Absolute FreeBSD_.  The others are still great
and have tons of tools, tips, and techniques, but I found I really got a
lot of the "why" out of the first one.

Bonus coolness, not quite the same thing, but:
* https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo
	Unix History Repository
	"The goal of this project is to create a git repository representing
the Unix source code history, starting from the 1970s and ending in the
modern time. To fulfill this goal the project brings data from early
snapshots, repositories, and primary research. The project aims to put
in the repository as much metadata as possible, allowing the automated
analysis of Unix history."

Later,
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
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