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The Linux kernel doesn't matter. What matters is understanding the history, philosophy, and purpose of the unix environment.

You needn't become a religious zealot committed to the unix philosophy, but if you don't take the time to understand it, you'll never get the most out of the environment.

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Similar but more historical, The Unix Programming Environment is a fun read, I learned a lot from it, and it's nice to have some historical context.

I love the flow of the book. Both Kernighan and Pike are great communicators.

>The Linux kernel doesn't matter.

While I agree on the importance of "the history, philosophy, and purpose of the unix environment", saying that the Linux kernel doesn't matter seems a bit harsh at best. It seems to me that the Linux kernel is the most successful Unix-like kernel in the history of computing. It certainly matters for its ubiquity alone.

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