A Computing Legend Speaks, a New Oral History with Ken Thompson

Computing royalty just grabbed the mic: the Computer History Museum released a fresh oral history with Ken Thompson, the quiet force behind Unix and co-creator of the C programming language. He’s a past winner of the ACM (a big computing group) Turing Award—basically the Nobel of computing—and the museum frames him as a once‑in‑a‑generation builder whose work still powers phones, laptops, and supercomputers. But while the institution went full reverent, the internet did what the internet does: it reacted—loudly.

The top vibe? Awe mixed with side‑eye. Fans gushed over a legend speaking plainly, but a sharp undercurrent roasted the interview’s editing. One standout quip accused the cut of landing right before the juicy part—a physics‑meets‑programming gag about a Hamiltonian (think: brainy math thing) turned into a Go language constant. The crowd split into camps: the “let legends ramble” purists vs. the “tight edits or it drags” crew. Others debated how much screen time Go (the newer language he helped shape at Google) should get next to the older icons Unix and C—is it a rightful heir or just a nice epilogue? Meme energy followed, with nerd humor flying and casual readers asking for more behind‑the‑scenes stories. Verdict: respect for the man, drama over the cut, and a joke that stole the show.