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Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

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Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#31

Post by albertgoeswoof »

drinchev wrote: post #23

Although I’ve read this probably a dozen times. What I think about this today, as I’m about to reviel my next project is that it’s so crazy how things evolved for open source. Nowadays people compete with companies and having an announcment like this usually includes : - website explaining as a pitch what is better about your software - ready to use examples and templates to support your claim - branding with a logo…

I dunno, whenever I hear about a new piece of OSS it seems to already have a bunch of users saying they used it here there and everywhere

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#32

Post by excalibur »

myth_buster wrote: post #3

> I'm doing a (free) operating system (__just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu__) for 386(486) AT clones. [...] and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. __just a hobby, won't be big and professional like X__ probably is how most of the startups get started.

Probably the best ones. The people who are convinced from the start that their product is revolutionary tend to be less flexible than those who are just fiddling around, and may as a result fail to develop it as effectively.

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#33

Post by dragonwriter »

codeulike wrote: post #18

Debate Question: would Linux have done so well without the wintel monopoly/monoculture on which it spread?

You mean “IBM PC clone”. “Wintel” wasn't really a thing until Microsoft’s dominant consumer and business OSs were Windows, starting with Windows 95, by which point Linux had already done a lot of spreading.

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#34

Post by asknthrow »

slededit wrote: post #28
drinchev wrote: post #23

Although I’ve read this probably a dozen times. What I think about this today, as I’m about to reviel my next project is that it’s so crazy how things evolved for open source. Nowadays people compete with companies and having an announcment like this usually includes : - website explaining as a pitch what is better about your software - ready to use examples and templates to support your claim - branding with a logo…

I think that is a little simplistic, the main thing that got Linux going was sustained and continued effort. If this first message had been a flop Linus would likely have continued working and pushing it through. It was almost a decade before Linux could be considered a "real" operating system ready for production.

I can hear RMS right now... "It's GNU/Linux."

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#35

Post by lolive »

One question: Being noob at OS stuff, I feel quite impressed that bash and GCC could work on the Linux that Linus built on his own. But everybody says that Linux really was something interesting as soon as a proper memory management was added to it. And that was done, but not by Linus. So, which achievement sounds to you the most impressive? Building the first Linux? Or adding that (afaiu, critical) memory management feature?

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#36

Post by taeric »

lolive wrote: post #35

One question: Being noob at OS stuff, I feel quite impressed that bash and GCC could work on the Linux that Linus built on his own. But everybody says that Linux really was something interesting as soon as a proper memory management was added to it. And that was done, but not by Linus. So, which achievement sounds to you the most impressive? Building the first Linux? Or adding that (afaiu, critical) memory management…

I don't think there is a total ordering on impressive achievements. Both are impressive in their own ways.

So, in large, it depends on what perspective you have in looking at it.

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#37

Post by mixmastamyk »

dragonwriter wrote: post #33
codeulike wrote: post #18

Debate Question: would Linux have done so well without the wintel monopoly/monoculture on which it spread?

You mean “IBM PC clone”. “Wintel” wasn't really a thing until Microsoft’s dominant consumer and business OSs were Windows, starting with Windows 95, by which point Linux had already done a lot of spreading.

Windows 3.0 and especially 3.1 were where it took over from DOS in the business world.

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#38

Post by acheron »

tytso wrote: post #16
chiefalchemist wrote: post #8

I just finished reading the book "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky (circa 2008). In the book he mentions this very "announcement." What's fascinating, per the book, is Linux was one of the first significant byproducts (if you will) of (internet) connectivity and how that enabled easy group / team formation. In the case of Linux, its growth helped to further connectivity, etc. That is, in creating Linux, it helped…

I don't know that I would call Linux "one of the first". Usenet had been around for a long time, and there were plenty of projects that were enabled via Usenet and mailing lists. For example, perl predates Linux by four years.

It's also why NetHack (from 1987) was called "Net"Hack.

Re: Linus Torvalds announces Linux (1991)

#40

Post by gjmacd »

people give Jobs and Gates a lot of credit because they focused on commercial products that were marketed to the public -- Linus, for me, is probably the single most important person to technology (software) in the last 35 years. With Linux and Git alone, it as impactful and game changing in this industry that I can think of. I cannot think of any person that's been this important to my career and my income.
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