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The early days of Linux (2023)
131–140 of 143 posts
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as long as you don't buy NVIDIA for your Linux desktop!
I've had multiple Nvidia cards across multiple installs of Linux, never had an issue once. Just install the Nvidia driver and it works. IMO the supposed problems of using Nvidia on Linux are wildly overblown.
I used NVIDIA on sway/hyprland on Wayland on NixOS with a variety of driver versions last year and still had awful flickering that made it basically unusable. After much consternation, I fixed it by buying an AMD card, and it's worked smoothly since.
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#133It's odd how Linux has become the only stable thing in this world. You turn it on and you know that over time it will only become better without any bad intentions.
And after every update there's something new that is broken. I suppose you mean "stable" as in "you can count on something always breaking".
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#134They confusing Linux and GNU/Linux in that article.
They're not bothering to draw a distinction that almost nobody cares about, yes.
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately Apple doesn't accept pull requests for XNU. They're more "source available", to put it under the old .NET Framework terms.
Unless I’m mistaken, XNU’s license (APSL) doesn’t forbid it being forked and reused in other projects (FOSS license compatibilities aside). For example like how OpenIndina was forked from OpenSolaris (CDDL) when Oracle dropped OpenSolaris development and support. APSL has been approved by the FSF which other “Source Available” type licenses aren’t. Personally though, I’d still rather people supported (for example) Fr…
That's true, but I agree, why would anyone make a XNU-based OS? Upstream wouldn't accept your forked changes and if you wanted to implement any of the upstream changes over time, that would get difficult as the fork diverged. I really don't think there's anything special in XNU. What exactly does it do well vs. BSD, Illumos, or NT?
100% agreed on BSD, though I'd opt for OpenBSD myself. Either way works!
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#136It's odd how Linux has become the only stable thing in this world. You turn it on and you know that over time it will only become better without any bad intentions.
I do remember there was some point in the mid/late 90s where I had to do a lot of research before buying [desktop] computers and hardware - would this specific network card be supported? Would this graphics card work with X11? etc. Maybe it was trauma and paranoia from the WinModems of the day, that were never going to work. But by the early 2000s we seemed to switch to a world where I just assumed Linux would suppor…
Oh, the dreaded WinModems! And other Linux-incompatible hardware. To help with this research of which hardware would work there were several dedicates sites that attempted to collect info from Linux users on which drivers to use, etc. It's all so much easier now.
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#137It's fascinating that the name 'Linux' was actually chosen by Ari Lemmke, not Linus himself. Details like this highlight the role of community and serendipity in the history of open-source software.
Quoting Wikipedia [1], which provides a bit more details (as of 2025-03-03):
Linus Torvalds had wanted to call his invention Freax, a portmanteau of "free", "freak", and "x" (as an allusion to Unix). During the start of his work on the system, he stored the files under the name "Freax" for about half of a year. Torvalds had already considered the name "Linux", but initially dismissed it as too egotistical. [2]
In order to facilitate development, the files were uploaded to the FTP server (ftp.funet.fi) of FUNET in September 1991. Ari Lemmke at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that "Freax" was a good name. Therefore, he named the project "Linux" on the server without consulting Torvalds. [2] Later, however, Torvalds consented to "Linux".
To demonstrate how the word "Linux" should be pronounced ([ˈliːnɵks]), Torvalds included an audio guide with the kernel source code. [3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Naming
[2] Torvalds, Linus; Diamond, David (2001). Just For Fun - The Story Of An Accidental Revolutionary. New York: HarperBusiness. p. 84. ISBN 0-06-662072-4.
[3] Torvalds, Linus (March 1994). "Index of /pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds" (https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20091008074754/http://www.kernel...) from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved August 3, 2009.
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#138TIL: Linus is a Swedish speaking Finn; and those are a thing. This sound has lived rent-free in my head since 1994: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linus-linux.ogg
classic, was on the search for it. I can remember, there was a file on the ftp sites called linus.au (the original I presume, since .ogg hasn't been invented at the time), there was a non-english version as well (finnish?). glad it survived somehow. thank you for the link
You might like to see https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/SillySounds/
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#139I had the minimum machine to run Linux 0.95 on: a 386sx16 with 4mb of memory and a 40mb drive. I actually had only 2mb but I recall Linux installed but barely ran. I upgraded it with SIPPs so I could run Linux properly. It was incredibly fun to have a Unix box on my desk in high school. But actually, I’ve built a 30 year career on that experience. A heartfelt thanks to Linus and all the contributors who have (so far!) supported this project.
Re: The early days of Linux (2023)
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you read up on how the UK government treated him after the war, it was essentially murder even if they didn't outright execute him.
No, words mean things. If they didn't actually pull the trigger, it wasn't murder. That isn't to say it was ok to treat Turing the way they did, because it wasn't ok. But it's important to not pollute the meaning of words by misusing them for greater rhetorical impact.