# RIP USENIX ATC

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2025-05-15
- Length: 1h 24m
- Episode: 17
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/c4258d6a

## Summary

Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal of Oxide Computer Company, joined by Tom Lyon, discuss the discontinuation of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference (ATC) and its historical shift from a practitioner-focused event to an academic one. They recount their experiences at USENIX 2004, including presenting DTrace, meeting Dennis Ritchie, and the conference's low acceptance rate, while critiquing the modern academic publishing model. The conversation highlights the disconnect between academic research and practical systems engineering, citing examples like the failure of simulated data structures and flawed RAID implementations to illustrate the importance of real-world implementation details.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=0) Introduction: Audio issues and the RIP USENIX ATC announcement
- [2:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=135) USENIX ATC history: Collocation with OSDI and the 2004 conference
- [5:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=300) The Dennis Ritchie story: Accosting the Unix pioneer
- [10:43](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=643) USENIX 2004: DTrace presentation, best paper, and audience size
- [23:56](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=1436) BoF sessions, Phoenix track, and the academic takeover of USENIX
- [32:51](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=1971) nohub minus p: The complexity of post-hoc process management
- [41:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=2508) Academic vs. Practitioner: Diffracting trees and Cold Fusion scandals
- [47:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=2877) ZFS RAID-Z3: Abstract algebra errors and implementation flaws
- [55:41](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=3341) Rob Pike's 'Systems Software Research is Irrelevant' and open source
- [1:14:38](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc#t=4478) Tom Lyon's perspective: The Unix users group and Living Computer Museum

## Topics

- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)
- [Policy, trade & tariffs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/policy-trade-and-tariffs)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- USENIX (other)
- DTrace (product)
- ZFS (product)
- Rust (other)
- Go (other)
- Dennis Ritchie (other)
- Rob Pike (other)
- Tom Lyon (other)
- Bryan Cantrill (other)
- Adam Leventhal (other)
- Oxide Computer Company (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [460: I Don't Care What Your Math Says](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2023-09-28-460-i-dont-care-what-your-math-says) (Embedded.fm)
- [47: Bridge of Toothpicks](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2014-04-16-47-bridge-of-toothpicks) (Embedded.fm)
- [19: Bacon and Beer Event](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2013-09-18-19-bacon-and-beer-event) (Embedded.fm)
- ["Impedance Matching" with Davidson and Vandenbout - Presbytes Pushing Portfolios](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2015-01-15-impedance-matching-with-davidson-and-vandenbout-presbytes-pushing-portfolios) (The Amp Hour)
- [492: Octopus Army](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2024-12-27-492-octopus-army) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2025-05-15-rip-usenix-atc. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.