Subject: The Guru of Chelm 
From: hughett@chaplin.med.upenn.edu (Paul Hughett)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy

                       The Guru of Chelm


In the village of Chelm there was a computer guru who had passed his
novitiate hacking ITS for Minsky and who was now greatly respected for
his wisdom.

One day a graphic artist came to the guru and asked him whether MacOS
was the best operating system.  The artist believed that it was, for
as he said, "It has a graphical user interface with many lovely icons
and is very easy for a beginner to use.  In addition, it has wonderful
tools for drawing and page layout."

"You're right," said the guru, and the artist went away satisfied.

The next day a manager came to the guru and said that he had heard
the artist proclaiming that MacOS was the best operating system.
"But this cannot be correct," the manager explained, "for Windows
NT is the best operating system.  It has a graphical user interface
just like the MacOS, plus all the applications programs that anyone
might want.  Not only that, but it runs on inexpensive hardware."

"You're right," said the guru, and the manager went away satisfied.

The following day a programmer who worked for the manager came to the
guru and asked why he had said that Windows NT was the best operating
system.  "For it seems to me that Linux is the best operating system.
It comes with a dozen different languages and all the tools that you
need to write wonderful code.  And you get the source code for
everything in the system."

"You're right," said the guru, and the programmer went away satisfied.

On the fourth day a kernel hacker came to the guru and asked how he
could possibly have told the programmer that Linux was the best
operating system.  "FreeBSD is the best," he said, "for it has
beautifully designed internal structures and is carefully written to
work reliably even under very heavy loads.  It makes no sense to use
anything else for a critical server."

"You're right," said the guru, and the hacker went away satisfied.

A novice who had witnessed all this spoke to the guru.  "Master, you
have told the artist that MacOS is the best operating system, the
manager that Windows NT is the best operating system, the programmer
that Linux is the best operating system, and the kernel hacker that
FreeBSD is the best operating system.  How can all of these be true?"

The guru smiled gently.  "My son, you must understand that each
user sees the operating system through the lens of his own needs.
Each of our visitors has the best operating system because he has the
operating system best suited to his needs."

"I see," said the novice.  "Then ITS is no better than any other
operating system?"

The guru grew red in the face and almost shouted, "Fool!  Have you
learned nothing from my teachings?  ITS is the greatest operating
system ever, compared to which all others are but pale imitations."

"You're right," said the novice.


                                     Paul Hughett
                                     (c) Copyright 1998