Having pontificated on the dogmas of the Unix "religion" we are ready to embark upon some of its doctrines. Unix and Linux developers fight tooth and nail to preserve the integrity of the tenets covered up to this point. The precepts discussed here, on the other hand, fall in the "yeah, I kind a go along with that" category. Although not every Unix person will agree with the points in this chapter, the Unix community (and these days the Linux community) as a whole often aligns itself with them.

You will find that some items highlighted here are more concerned with how things should be done than why they should be done. I will try to provide some explanation for these, but be aware that some things are done for no other reason than that is the way they have always been done. Like established religion, Unix has its traditions, too. Linux is exhibiting the same characteristic in a kind of "same stuff, new wrapper" way.

Conspicuous by its absence is the topic of Open Source, the concept that most...