Common Traits of the Veteran Unix Admin

snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia offers a field guide to understanding your resident Unix veteran, laying out the nine traits common to this grizzled, hardcore set. From not using sudo, to wielding regular expressions like weapons, to generally assuming the problem resides with whomever is asking the question, each trait is key to 'spotting these rare, beautiful creatures in the wild,' Venezia writes. 'If some of these traits seem anti-social or difficult to understand from a lay perspective, that's because they are. Where others may see intractable, overly difficult methods, we see enlightenment, borne from years of learning, experience, and overall, logic.'"

And neck beards

[theillien]

Don't forget the neck beards.

RegEx?

[Mr. Sketch]

wielding regular expressions like weapons

Reminds me of:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
- Jamie Zawinski

Common Traits of the Veteran Unix Admin #10

[mgichoga]

Real Unix admins would be reading this post in lynx.

Missing trait number 10.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

We also throw a nickel at the rookie Windows sys admins and tell them, "Here's a nickel. Get a real operating system, kid."

Re:vim? really?

[c0lo]

Butterflies [xkcd.com] - and no, emacs is not an option, unless you code the command yourself and store the code in your deepest vault.

Re:Common Traits of the Veteran Unix Admin #10

[Anonymous Coward]

Real Unix admins wouldn't be reading this in lynx - they would be discussing it in alt.comp.slashdot

Re:Missing trait number 10.

[Zancarius]

We also throw a nickel at the rookie Windows sys admins and tell them, "Here's a nickel. Get a real operating system, kid."

Weird. I read that as:

We also throw a wookie at the Windows sys admins and tell them, "Careful, kid, he'll tear your arm off if he catches you using the GUI."

Re:vim? really?

[scdeimos]

Damn programmers and their butterflies, the bane of a real sys admin [xkcd.com].

Re:spigot groks unix

[Shikaku]

http://bash.org/?659196 [bash.org]

Unix admins know Klingon.