This Book Taught Me 6 Must-Know Facts About Linux
How-To Geek, Friday, March 6th, 2026
The Art of Unix Programming (TAoUP), by Eric S. Raymond, is not a tutorial or how-to book. Instead, it is a book about the history and philosophy of Unix. But no other book has had a greater influence on my approach to Linux and macOS, or my everyday use of it. Here are just a few of the things it has taught me.
Unix is even older than you think
You don't need to know the full history of Unix to use it-or Linux, or macOS-today. But knowing a bit about how Unix originated cannot hurt. Understanding the context of the OS helps you understand the screen you're looking at, and history can answer many of your initial questions, like 'Why are command names so short?'
The second chapter-'History: A Tale of Two Cultures'-explains how Unix began in 1969, on teletype machines that looked like glorified typewriters. It's amazing to think that these machines still have something in common with many of the servers that power our lives online.