What's often lost in a simple review of the history is that in modern times certain elements of the Unix philosophy [1] have become more important than ever. In fact as technology becomes more pervasive I would argue that the ideas it encapsulates are no longer only relevant to computer architecture, they're now relevant to the survival of a free and open society. This isn't just about how to build the best widget anymore (though I still think the Unix philosophy is a great contender for that).
In particular I'm referring to the principles of composability and universal interfaces. These principles make the Unix philosophy inherently democratizing - when you apply it you're producing something that's intended to interoperate with other agents in a diverse ecosystem beyond your control. This is in stark contrast to the monoliths that tend to emerge from proprietary software development where the socioeconomic goals are to control everything strictly and limit interoperability because there's commercial value in having a "moat" or a "walled garden" which people can't escape.
As computers become interwoven with our lives and our society the general purpose computer has become a tool like the printing press. The printing press was a precursor for democracy as we know it because it enabled the dissemination of information on a scale that was previously impossible.
What sort of social progress we might ultimately achieve through the general purpose computer is yet to be fully determined. But in the modern era we have many examples of what the competing philosophy of proprietary monoliths looks like - it's a hellscape where more your time and attention are harnessed by the monolith's owner, to serve his own ends, even at the detriment of your health and well-being [2].
Facebook and Instagram wouldn't be killing our children if they had been designed around the Unix principles of composability and a universal interface. How many people have lamented their inability to take their data, content and relationships away from Meta's silo? It's a constant refrain in our industry that people wish they could get away from a service that started out great and gradually "enshittified" - had these services been designed with the Unix philosophy in mind, it would be possible.
Either way, the Unix philosophy is now just as much about your human freedom and well-being, as it is about whether your code works well.
Stallman of course saw this coming decades ago and predicted with disturbing prescience - that "either the user would control the program, or the program would control the user."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
[2] https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-ill...
In particular I'm referring to the principles of composability and universal interfaces. These principles make the Unix philosophy inherently democratizing - when you apply it you're producing something that's intended to interoperate with other agents in a diverse ecosystem beyond your control. This is in stark contrast to the monoliths that tend to emerge from proprietary software development where the socioeconomic goals are to control everything strictly and limit interoperability because there's commercial value in having a "moat" or a "walled garden" which people can't escape.
As computers become interwoven with our lives and our society the general purpose computer has become a tool like the printing press. The printing press was a precursor for democracy as we know it because it enabled the dissemination of information on a scale that was previously impossible.
What sort of social progress we might ultimately achieve through the general purpose computer is yet to be fully determined. But in the modern era we have many examples of what the competing philosophy of proprietary monoliths looks like - it's a hellscape where more your time and attention are harnessed by the monolith's owner, to serve his own ends, even at the detriment of your health and well-being [2].
Facebook and Instagram wouldn't be killing our children if they had been designed around the Unix principles of composability and a universal interface. How many people have lamented their inability to take their data, content and relationships away from Meta's silo? It's a constant refrain in our industry that people wish they could get away from a service that started out great and gradually "enshittified" - had these services been designed with the Unix philosophy in mind, it would be possible.
Either way, the Unix philosophy is now just as much about your human freedom and well-being, as it is about whether your code works well.
Stallman of course saw this coming decades ago and predicted with disturbing prescience - that "either the user would control the program, or the program would control the user."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy
[2] https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-ill...