Andrew S. Tanenbaum

The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

A couple of years ago this guy called Ken Brown wrote a book saying that Linus stole Linux from me It later…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Writing a portable OS is not much harder than a nonportable one, and all systems should be written with portability in mind…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Sequential programming is really hard, and parallel programming is a step beyond that.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Linux is a leprosy; … This statement is not grammatically or factually correct.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

If anyone had realized that within 10 years this tiny system that was picked up almost by accident was going to be…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

The only real argument for monolithic systems was performance, and there is now enough evidence showing that microkernel systems can be just…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I had never engaged in remote multishrink psychoanalysis on this scale before, so it was a fascinating experience.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Unfortunately, the current generation of mail programs do not have checkers to see if the sender knows what he is talking about.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

However, as every parent of a small child knows, converting a large object into small fragments is considerably easier than the reverse…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

But in all honesty, I would suggest that people who want a modern "free" OS look around for a microkernel-based, portable OS,…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

A refund for defective software might be nice, except it would bankrupt the entire software industry in the first year.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Microkernels are not a pipe dream. They represent proven technology.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

A multithreaded file system is only a performance hack.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I really am not angry with Linus. Honest. He's not angry with me either.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I have a mouse, but don't have a mouse driver for MINIX and have never felt the need to write one. Typing…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

I can type faster than I can point. And my mother told me that pointing is impolite.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

A lot of other people wanted a free production UNIX with lots of bells and whistles and wanted to convert MINIX into…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Fight Features. … The only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

“The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.”

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

While most people can talk rationally about kernel design and portability, the issue of free-ness is 100% emotional.

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

XML combines the efficiency of text files with the readability of binary files

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum

UNIX does not allow path names to be prefixed by a drive name or number; that would be precisely the kind of…

— Andrew S. Tanenbaum