Over at InformationWeek, Charles Babcock asks What’s the greatest software every written? We all have our favorites, I suppose, but take a minute to think of your answer to that question.
Babcock begins by listing some of the things that make a particular piece of software great: it must represent a breakthrough and demonstrate technical brilliance; it must have “legs” and not be easily replaceable; and it must do the job it was created to do. With that in mind here are Babcock’s choices for 2 through 12:
| 2 | IBM’s System R |
| 3 | Institute for Genomic Research’s gene sequencing software |
| 4 | IBM System 360 |
| 5 | Java |
| 6 | Mosaic browser |
| 7 | Sabre airline reservation system |
| 8 | Macintosh OS |
| 9 | Excel spreadsheet |
| 10 | Apollo guidance system |
| 11 | Google page rank |
| 12 | The Morris worm |
Take a look at the article to see the reason for these rankings. They are, it seems to me, reasonable choices. You or I might disagree about some or the order but they aren’t obviously wrong. That leaves the choice for number one—the greatest software ever written. Can you guess what it is?
If you look at the list the answer should be obvious by what’s missing: Unix. That’s not really a surprise but Unix covers a wide range. Just for starters there’s AT&T Unix, BSD Unix, and Linux. Babcock is specific; he chose 4.3BSD. Again, see the article for his reasons. I find them persuasive. What do you think?